Category Archives: Boat Details

Electricity

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We bought the boat in 2010. It was 9 years old then on its original batteries. That’s along time for batteries. 7 years is a great car battery. We never plug into shore power, all electricity has come from solar or engine alternators.

This trip I noticed the battery voltage getting weak in the wee hours on those late/middle of the night boat checks.

Seeing voltage down near 12.1 is not bad but less than ideal. One night I saw 11.9. Time for concern.

Today ran the Honda generator. Mostly all bulk load, 60 amps going into the bank. Voltage is up to 12.3 early eve.

Will need to run generator again. Seems the little Honda is out producing the master volt alternators, need more data to back that up.

The one thing that it helps quantify it is the house bank switch on the port side is being a little finicky which might cause some loss of current during charging.

Beautification and Maintence

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As sugar shack is a boat, there is always something to do, maintence or repairs or modifications to make her more home. These last few months in St Lucia were no different. The difference between us and full time cruisers is we go back to work and let someone else take care of the chores. And trust that they get done correctly. Rodney Bay marina is run by Edwin, who used to run the yard, and always took great care of us and have definitely earned our trust. The new yard manager is Frederic and he is no different. They are always available to answer emails and questions and to make sure things get done on time/budget/schedule. Thats not to say its always ahead of time, but its is island time after all.

This trip, they hauled the shack out of the water and put a fresh coat of Island 44 bottom paint on her so she should be good to go for a while. This time Christine wanted red so the bottom of the boat changed from blue to red, course most is underwater so you will only see it when swimming at anchor.

While she was out of water they also washed/waxed and polished her, so we should just have to rinse her off a bit and be underway after getting some provisions and gasoline for the dingy.

We also had some wood work rejuvenated, the teak on the sugar scoops should be updated and the few places that were varnished revarnished. We were going to have the cockpit table redone as well, but waited a little too long to start that project and it wouldn’t be done in time for us leave the island. We shall see how that work turned out, we got photos of the polish and bottom job along the way, but never asked for or received the wood work photos.

We also had a cap tube filter installed on the freezer. We had a dickens of time tracking down the right guy to do that work. Finally when I was there in February, I made contact with Prudent, the expert, as I was just about to leave for the airport. We had the boat put back in the water 3 weeks ago, so that the freezer work could be done, Prudent is a super nice guy and eventually got the work done, yesterday morning. So much for leaving it running and testing it out as our original plan was, but hopefully the educated guess of what was up with the keel cooler and capillary tube will go well. The boat has to be in the water to use the freezer and refrigerator as they use the ocean water to cool off the compressed gas that makes the freezer cool.

A little more than an hour till touch down, its along way down, but the water is blue and the bahamas water sure is beautiful.

More boat chores accomplished

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Another sweet day in Saint Lucia or lucifer according to some folks who can’t remember the correct name.

Got up early and went walking around the docks and boat yard. Found out that Magnificat was still in the yard and there is lots of room for more boats. Hopefully they’ll put the shack over there sooner than later as the marina is growing some good stuff at the waterline.

Twas a Sunday so most every thing is closed. Shawn went for a run I changed out the fuel filters and cleaned the bowls. Made a good mess in the port side so the majority of the time was cleaning up some spilled diesel. The starboard side was a piece of cake with a little help from Shawn turning on and off the fuel at the tanks.

That left a lot of day light and a search for some thing else to tinker with. I had brought a remote for the windless a few trips ago and it is now installed and operational. We can now use a remote control out on the bow to raise and lower the anchor.

Sent Regis an update on the freezer as it finally pulled its thing. Frost was gone and compressor running.

Started putting some stuff away for the enevitable return home to Austin. Decided to go over to Mikes for a cold beer. We used the pulley bridges even tho Mikes was closed so it was back to the Boardwalk bar at the marina.

Wanted to try something a bit different for dinner than the Marina complex so we wandered out and to the left. Up the hill by the Shell station there is a place called El Rey that turned out lovely and had a nice jam session of drummers showing their skills. Dinner was really good and more like local prices. We will have to go back there in April.

Stopped at the boardwalk on the way home and watched the Kaos. A English bunch had obviously been there a while and the loud ones. Quite entertaining tho.

Slept on the trampoline till I was rudely awakend by a short drizzle.