Aaron's blog

Randy and Susan are here, Louise has been lazy on the dock, and Aaron climbed the mast to see what is up there (in preparation to mount wind instruments).

We got put in the water yesterday afternoon. Today the wind came up and is blowing down a stretch of the river and sending decent waves to loudly slap against the bottom. Anna feels seasick at the dock. Louise is lazily lounging like normal. Aaron has lost his balance twice, falling toward the front of the boat (it is rocking substantially end to end too).

Wiring marathon today. The 12v system works on the new batteries, charger inverter after dinner.

Tonight Aaron started to put the lifeline netting up. Once it’s finished, Louise can roam freely when out on the deck.

We installed the dingy davits (lifting arms) over the past few days, and yesterday uncrated the dingy and motor and hoisted them up to test it out.

The first coat of bottom paint was put on today.

First fiberglass job today. This is just a thin piece of about two layers of chopped strand mat and poly (instead of stronger and more expensive epoxy). It will be glued onto the back of the dashboard where some old instruments were cut out, and then we can fill the old holes in against that backing and drill holes for the new instruments.

Progress today:

Put fiberglass panel back on the cabin roof, had to be careful to seal some screw holes to be watertight.

Installed new navigation table light. The old one didn't work, this one can be either red (to preserve night vision) or white and dims. The kit I ordered was not great so I rewired some of it and put a different switch on it.

Installed new VHF radio at nav table. There is one at the binnacle but it doesn't seem to work. I suspect the antenna on the top of the mast is gone as I can't see it from the ground. It will be good to have access to the VHF from inside, and the binnacle will get a remote microphone so will still have access there.

Wired in the charger for the handheld VHF radio. Now we don't have to plug in a wall-wart to supply 12V to it, it is wired directly into a 12V circuit.

After a couple days of part-time poking and exploring where existing instrument wires go between working on other projects, today I got serious about getting some wiring done. Almost all of the floor boards were taken out at one point and there was some delicate wire fishing. But here is the first indication that I am on the right track with the new NMEA 2000 instrument network. That little 4" display shows changing numbers when I spin the paddlewheel sensor with my finger (normally would be spun by water).

Next up is to extend the network to the cockpit where it will provide the same data to the chartplotter and 2-3 4" displays.

Another big hurdle will be to get an instrument installed on top of the mast and then connected in, which will probably be in a week or two.

Digging into the electrical panel for the first time today. Removed what appeared to be an old cable TV amplifier and the old navigation table light, both were poorly wired.