Here is a list of small but important projects that we completed and crossed off of our list this week.

New Computer - Bought a new eMachines laptop computer this week to replace the power hungry desktop we had. The laptop draws considerably less power, and we’re really impressed with this eMachines computer. The wide screen is a great plus. Took one day to move everything over from the old computer. We’ll use the computer to continue maintaining the web site, but will have to find internet cafes to do the actual uploading. The computer will also be used for maintaining our onboard inventory of parts, spares, and provisions. We also have PC based navigation software, so in the event of the chartplotter failing, we’ll use the laptop as a backup.

Organized Cockpit Lockers - Organized the storage areas under the helmsman seat and in the lazarette. Everything now has a home and is neatly organized. Made a storage area on the underside of the lazarette lid for small things like gaff hook for the boat hook (for when we catch that really big fish!) and for the manual bilge pump handle. I’ll add a few more things as time goes on, but this makes for nice storage and easy access. The board was made of Starboard.

New Anchor Chain - Removed the 6’ of 3/8” chain from the secondary anchor rode, and replaced with 50’ of 5/16” high test chain. Also marked the anchor rode in 30’ increments so we’ll know how much rode we have out if we need to deploy a second anchor.

Organized More Lockers - Cleaned out and organized two more storage lockers. It’s amazing how much storage there is on the HC33! We’ve been eliminating things that we’ll no longer need, and making room for provisions. Also took time this week to begin organizing my tools into storage areas. t continues to amaze me how much stuff we have aboard that we really don’t need. A lot of clothes went for donations, miscellaneous stuff to friends, and more to the garbage dumpster.

New Binnacle Cover - Made a new binnacle cover as the old one no longer fit because of the new pedestal guard that was installed earlier this year. The cover is fairly large, but will be excellent as a storage bag for all the other canvas when we’re under way.

Lavac Cover Plate - Though we installed the Lavac head last week, we had been waiting on the cover plate for the pump which we had to special order. It finally came in, so was installed this week. The pump for the head is mounted behind a bulkhead, of which there is a 3” hole drilled through so we can operate the pump with the removable handle. The cover plate does nothing more than dress up the hole and make things look aesthetically better.

Battery Isolator - Previously installed was a simple diode type battery isolator, the ones that have been around forever. Though it is a very simple piece of equipment that requires no attention and is relatively stable, it does have it’s drawbacks. The alternator connects to on post on the isolator, while each battery bank connects to their own post on the isolator as well. In order for the alternator to accurately charge the batteries, the voltage regulator sense wire must be connected to one of the battery banks. The reason the sense wire should not be connected to the alternator output when using the battery isolator is that there is close a 1 volt drop across the terminals resulting in insufficient voltage at the battery for charging. When the sense wire is placed on the battery side of the isolator, it will tell the alternator to put out more voltage to compensate for the voltage drop so that the voltage at the batteries is sufficient for good charging. When testing my setup, I found that in order to get 14.3 volts at the battery itself, the alternator had to put out 15.3 volts to compensate for the voltage drop. Having the alternator put out 15.3 volts posed a couple of concerns; the alternator had to work that much harder to charge the batteries efficiently which resulted in a very hot alternator, more hp taken from the engine, and more wear and tear on the alternator as well as going through belts more often. After installing the new electronic battery isolator, which has no voltage drop, I was pleased with the test results I got from the alternator. Now when the alternator is charging the batteries it puts out 14.3 volts, which is the same reading I get when checking the voltage at the batteries during charging. So now the alternator is putting out 1 less volt, is running cooler than before (170^of), and hopefully it will last longer since it doesn’t have to work as hard to charge the batteries.