I again have dropped the ball and not posted in quite some time. I am promising myself. I’m going to get back on this. We were headed to st Augustine to do boat work back in Oct. we remained there through mid Dec doing a refit on the instruments and more! List at the bottom of post. We final splashed on Dec 13th and remained afloat with no leaks!! A huge win in our book! We moved down the east coast of Florida to vero…Continue Reading “What we’ve been up to…”

When we started the Balmar 60-YP-100-SV alternator and regulator installation last week we found we needed a new alternator support piece. The hole that holds the pin for the alternator was very worn and that is why our alternator was cavitating so badly (and probably why we had several things break related to the alternator!). The part wouldn’t arrive until Monday! We were hoping to leave Dec 15th (Tuesday) for Hilton Head… so we tried to do all the work we could while waiting on…Continue Reading “Installation of Balmar Alternator”

Stew completed another episode that covers our first live-aboard summer in Erie. This is after we moved aboard during the pandemic and found out we could not leave Lake Erie – both the Erie Canal was closed and Canada was closed! Stew took a job working on Undercover Billionaire season 2 for Discovery channel. Due to the pandemic he had to live in a hotel about 5 miles from where I was living on the boat. He had to quarantine for most of the week…Continue Reading “Episode 3: Covid Summer”

Wow, I honestly cannot believe that it is complete. After all the research and planning and it actually works! Last week I finally decided to take the plunge and rewired and installed everything. After posting my planning diagram on FB a 2010 CS student say it and offered his expertise. Mark Barron was beyond helpful. He stopped by first to take a look at the board I had set up with all the components. We discussed how to proceed and then I got started measuring,…Continue Reading “Lithium Battery Installation”

The plan to add solar and replace the current batteries with lithium has been on my mind since last summer. Summer 2019 we sailed lake Ontario and primarily anchored out (30 out of the 35 days!). We installed our cold plate/compressor refrigeration system right before we left. Well, first we connected it to the wrong battery (THE STARTER BATTERY) so in the midst of sailing somewhere between the Welland Canal and Toronto we finally rewired it and connected it to the house battery. Don’t ask…Continue Reading “Solar and Lithium – The Planning”