A working week

Time seems to be flying by as we continue working on our boat jobs. As always, there are many projects to be completed before we head to the Bahamas. Mark has 3 major jobs – the installation of 3 new items – lithium batteries, auto pilot and the meter for speed, wind and depth. My major project is restoring the exterior wood.

On Sunday, Mark started the installation of our 3 new lithium batteries. These batteries replace 2 lead batteries and this bank of 3 will be our house batteries. They will supply power to all our house systems when we’re not plugged in at a dock. The 3 batteries fit perfectly in the space where the old ones were and with a bit of McGivering, Mark got the batteries working properly. We still have one large lead battery that is used to start the engine and this battery will now be recharged through the lithiums. It was a rather tricky installation with lots of wiring running under the floorboards. It took 3 days to get all the parts working together.

The last few days I’ve been stripping the wood in our cockpit. We’ve not touched this wood in our 12 years of ownership and it’s in pretty rough shape. This wood will need to be varnished and that’s my next step. I also spent a bit of time washing the teak cap rails, rub rails and other deck teak to get it ready for a coat of Semco (this product protects the teak from the elements).

The weather has changed quite a bit after tropical storm Nicole rolled through. Our daily temperature has been lower which has made working quite nice. We’ve had some rain but not a lot and our deck is getting rather dirty. Once all the wood has had the semco applied, the deck will need a good scrubbing.

One of the fun parts of all the boat jobs is ordering stuff (like missing parts, adapters, new items etc). We’ve had lots of packages arriving to the office – it’s like Christmas on our boat! Today we picked up 5 packages with all kinds of goodies inside! Loads of fun!

The next job on Mark’s list is the autopilot installation. This will be a fairly complicated project but hopefully it will go smoothly. The autopilot allows us to relax at the helm as “auto” steers the sailboat. Our old system was failing at the end of last season so it will be good to have a new system.