Over-Night

Perfect weather AND the boat is able to go out. We took the boat to the Farm for our first over-night on the boat. This makes sense as it; is not very far, has a dock, and the cabins have supplies in case we are missing something. The mission was to test the diesel stove for cooking/heating and to find out what we need in the galley in general.

Installed 2 new carbon monoxide detectors (that also show temp.). So each of the 3 cabins have one.

Stove

The stove did not get hot enough for cooking after an hour (when we first tried it) but it did get hot enough about 2 hours after starting it. We kept it on all night – where the outside temperature dropped below 0c. The aft cabin was about 22c all night with the stove running at about 75% and two sleeping. So no worries – just need to get that stove going sooner.

I fired up the 2000w Honda gen. (sitting on the dock). I ran an extension cord into the forward cabin (where I slept) and ran a space heater. This kept the forward cabin at 15c. I awoke in the morning feeling snug but noticed that the temp was 10c and the generator was out of gas. I think it ran out of fuel just a short time before I got up (7:00) as it definitely dipped below 0c outside. I am still waiting for the short cord for shore power where I can use the gen as shore power.

Galley

We needed to go to the cabin, several times, to get things missing from the boat. A list has been prepared and those items will be sorted for future. Who forgets a can opener – right?

Mechanical

The drive train starts and runs well. However; there can be a lot of smoke (think cold/stationary/no wind) around the aft end. So that is a concern for anyone in the cockpit.

Start battery is ok. I was worried about the House batteries but that turned out to be a problem with Valerie using the 2 burner electric stove for about 5 minutes. The system was able to handle this but I put a stop to it to preserve batteries. After that the House batteries hardly changed over night.

The Remote Battery Switches are working great. I turned the Automatic Charge Relay to ‘Auto’ and I could hear the solenoid click at appropriate times – nice.

All exterior lights work as they should.

Water pressure is good and holds well. Hot water was plentiful in the evening (having been heated by the engine) but cooled off completely overnight.

Tried out the one horn I decided to keep and it is working well.

Tried the fuel transfer pump to fill up the stove tank. This did not work? Fortunately; I had a can of diesel so I was able to fill it directly via a deck fitting.

The VHF received Victoria Coast Guard and responds to a microphone click from a handheld. I think it (new antenna) is ok.

Other

I could not get the Furuno Chartplotter GPS to respond. I am going to try one more thing – after that its a tech support call and probably an exchange for a new one.

I tried connecting to the SeaGauge wirelessly again. This time with an iPad and an iPhone as I have no interest in ‘rooting’ my Android tablet. Neither iOS device worked. I can connect and I can access the web server (192.168.100.100) but the browser stops loading and complains about no internet connection. I am wondering if the SeaGauge content includes reference(s) to the outside world. I also understand that iOS itself can have an issue like this. So still some hope. In the meantime I await the new NMEA2000 module for the SeaGauge. I ordered a Maretron DSM-410. I will install this in the upper dash instead of a second tablet.

So the upper dash will have a tablet for Navionics and the DSM-410 to display sensor (think engine) data.

The lower dash will have the Furuno MFD which will have an alternative perspective on charts but more importantly will display radar and sonar with the option to mirror itself to the tablet (as long as I am not using the radar as it can only connect wirelessly to a single device).

On a different note – I am happy to say that the old auto pilot system has been accepted into the Gibsons maritime museum. An example of West Coast marine expertise.