Another long night on the grid.

Spent the night of July 22nd on the grid.
I went on at 0100. The boat touched down about 2 hrs later and I started working on it at 0430. Didn't get much sleep but the boat got pressure sprayed, painted, zinc replaced and hopefully knotmeter fixed.

Kite photos of Ginger Lady

My latest interest is taking aerial pictures from kites. Here are a few pictures of Ginger Lady sailing on the Lynn Canal near Eldred Rock. The other boat in the pictures is Dijon a Rawson 30 PH owned by Glenn and Kathy.

2012 Summer Sail Trip

I was so entranced by my various projects on the boat that I forgot about our month long sailing trip.
Here is a summary:

Down the Lynn Canal and Icy Strait to Dundas Bay
Outside of Chichagof Island to Sitka
Then back through Peril Strait and out to Warm Springs Bay
Down Stephen's Passage to Juneau and then home

The highlight was Dundas Bay.The flowers were something else and our hiking trip to the foot of the Brady Glacier was amazing.

The sailing sucked. We were either becalmed or going right into it most of the time.

No real adventure here. Most of the route I have done multiple times and have been in almost all the same anchorages.

Here are some pictures:

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMPa3dWfUu7Y3b9I_nBMB5KIsv-sdBQmdb8YGuH

Refinishing outside wood on Ginger Lady

 Last week Yammy and I spent 5 days stripping off old cetol and putting three coats on. We also oil sealed a few pieces including inside the cockpit.

A few electrical modifications.

In an effort to simplify my electrical system and get it to the point where I understand it, I have removed a few components and the associated wiring. Just back from Skagway today. I completed the new switching arrangement. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it.
Here is a picture of some of the stuff I took out of the boat. I also removed battery bank #2 a 168 pound 8D battery that was residing under my cockpit locker. It was fried and was dragging the rest of the system down with it.

Anyways there are still a couple of gremlins at work in the system and it will take a little more troubleshooting to get it running to my satisfaction.

Electrical Clean Up

I was too exhausted after ripping wiring and various other components out of my boat to take any pictures.
I will snap some pictures of all the stuff on my next visit.
In a nutshell. Nothing seemed to work right. The Amp Hr Meter, the Three Stage Voltage Regulator, the isolator and alternator sensor. To cap things off my batteries were not charging at the same rate and my starting battery was discharging while I was away from the boat.
Turns out that by battery bank two was toast. After much experimentation and ripping things apart I discovered that whoever installed the new Yanmar engine did not make any effort to integrate with the existing electrical system. The system was charging using the internal regulator in the alternator and not the 3 stage external regulator. The starter was wired directly to the starting battery with no switch. The rest of the switching arrangement doesn't seem to make much sense. Anyways after two days of hard work I have an enormous pile of surplus wiring, electrical components and battery cable lying in my cockpit.
Miraculously I have the system up and running adequately. I have a good 8d battery as a bank and a good starter battery, things are charging adequately and there is a switching arrangement I can understand.
The boat is about 200 pounds lighter.

I have a new alternator regulator kit ordered.
I am in the process of obtaining four trojan 6 volt batteries which will be my house bank.

I will install all that when we get back from our July sailing trip.

Oh and the electrical clean up will also continue when I get back. I suspect there are still a few miles of wiring that doesn't do anything.

Fuel Tank is Installed

I don't have any pictures yet. The new fuel tank is hooked up and everything seems fine. I filled it up with 26 U.S gallons. I was hoping for more capacity but that is probably very close to what the old tank held.
That translates to 23 gal ( to be safe ) = 46 hrs motoring = 230 mile range with no sailing.
I removed a bunch of old wiring. There was enough to fill a garbage bag. None of it seemed to be doing anything. For sure some of it was left over from the previous engine installation. I still have to reroute some plumbing and secure some wiring around the tank. I also have to wedge it in place so it can't shift.

Next I have to start the engine and test the three stage regulator to see if it needs replacing.