1) Florida
We arrived in Riviera Beach, Florida
Mid-week, we moved on the boat in the boatyard, just in time for a intense cold front to come through, dropping temperatures to a low of 30s to 40s. This was good for us, though, as it meant that Chris couldn’t work on the bottom of the other boat, but rather shifted to completing the solar panel fabrication and installation.
This fabrication was much more complex than I had anticipated, involving installation of numerous stainless-steel 7/8” piping over the cables to stabilize the mounting of the panels. The panels mounted well, though, and ultimately the rig seems pretty secure. We’ll see how it lasts. The other complexity was the support pipes – also stainless steel (one 7/8, one 1”, nested to allow them to expand / collapse to hold the panels perpendicular). We used two supports per solar panel. These things are pretty tough looking, which is what we wanted.
Ended up putting the boat in the water a couple days later than we wanted originally, which is really quite good for this sort of work. Always takes much longer than you anticipated.
Tested the engine in the yard, and discovered that the alternator wasn’t working. Not sure what happened, but it wasn’t putting out any power. Dropped it off at the local alternator shop – Riviera Generators and Alternators – and also ordered a new one. Now we have a spare! And they were able to fix the original one.
Moved the boat from Crackerboy and, after a brief motor, got a slip at Riviera Beach Marina. Very difficult approach, with a 1 knot cross current, plus 15 knots from the opposite direction. After docking in three different berths (they let someone else tie up in our slip), we finally found where we were going to stay. Still, pretty stressful.
Spend the next week in Riviera Beach Marina, troubleshooting the electrical system. Why weren’t the solar panels charging the house batteries? Why wasn’t the alternator charging the house batteries as well? Turns out the electrical system had been mis-wired, with the solar panels hooked to the ACR (automatic charge relay), and not directly to the house battery. In addition, there was a bad ground used for the house batteries; we ended up having to bypass the previous ground.
We also purchased some forespar mounts for the spinnaker pole / whisker pole, and wish I had gotten one for the bowsprit. It is a pain in the butt to keep mounting and removing every time we want to anchor, and it has been much too windy to use it. I think I’ll end up lashing it to the whisker pole.
But ultimately, we were able to get the systems up and running. At the same time, we also rigged the boat at Riviera Beach Marina, raising the new jib and fitting the main and backstay. Whew. Now we’re making progress.
Here’s the more detailed explanation I sent to Chris on how the systems are doing:
Chris,
Thanks for the note - been meaning to send you a message, but haven't had the consistent internet connection for a while. Generally the systems have been doing well once we made the crossing. We left Crackerboy on Friday (the 23rd?). Then spent a frustrating week in Riviera Marina getting the systems sorted out (the solar panels weren't charging, nor was the engine alternator). Both were charging the start battery, but not the house battery.
I ended up fixing the solar panel issue - the hot lead needs to go straight to the house battery, can't connect to the ACR / charge relay device. Also ended up hiring an electrician to diagnose the alternator not charging the house battery. Turns out there was a bad ground on the house (it ran forward to the old house battery location in front of the port settee). So he bypassed the old ground, and used a common ground the start battery was charging from and the system worked perfectly.
The PUR 80E watermaker is (knock on wood) working fine so far - we've used it for the first time early this week and it generated good water and in reasonable quantities, although it is loud. Glad we got the larger capacity one, certainly, to minimize running time.
Solar panel (we purchased 4 85W BP solar panels) fittings have been working well - still need to figure out how to the keep the low-side panels out of the water (right now I just lash them in to the deck), and chafe on the lower lifeline cable may be a problem, but we can overcome both issues with time. (the solar panels were selected due to their mounting height – the BP and a few others were only 20” high, while the more popular Kyocera panels were 26” – the greater height panels would have been too tall to fit flush with the stanchions.)
Battery
So all in all, the systems in the boat are now working well. I don't recommend leaving on a vacation right has a project wraps up - but then, we had planned on being ready much earlier. - shrug -
As for the trip so far - well, the weather has been crappy - cold, 20+ knots much of the time. So we're still waiting for the tropical paradise, but hopefully we'll get some nice days here. We're in Sandy Key right now.
Would love to get those GPS coordinates of the harbor you mentioned - be curious to see where it is.
As for the Volvo synthetic - we were going to return those to Jas Marine, but forgot about them. And thanks again for letting us borrow your truck - it was very useful for those last few errands before we headed out.
all the best,
Hilding
------------- end message to Chris -------------------
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