Shear Madness

February 10, 2012

Kathy, Matt, AnnMarie and Bradley with Jack who wants to get on E-Trade

We had a great rest stop in Savannah. It’s a great town, filled with history. Sherman spared Savannah from destruction during the Civil War (known in these parts as the War of Northern Aggression) so it has wonderful old buildings and cobblestone streets. Walking the old downtown is fun and educational. Staying at the Westin’s marina allowed us access to all the resort facilities, so we enjoyed the hot tub, fitness center, sauna, and golf course. A free water ferry provided transportation across the river to downtown. Bradley and I had a chance to catch up with a long lost friend Ann Marie, daughter of one of my closest friends. We enjoyed meeting Ann Marie’s husband Matt and son Jack. Matt is an Army helicopter pilot and he took us to the military base to see his Chinook. It’s quite a machine and we greatly enjoyed the chance to see it up close and personal! We walked through many of the squares reading all about the history of Savannah and visited the Ship Museum and the Mickve Israel Temple, the third oldest Jewish congregation and only Gothic-style synagogue in the US.

Bradley, the busy Savannah River, and Shear Madness at the Westin dock in the background

Our dockmate at the Westin marina was a 102 foot boat called Who Cares, which travels along with its two fishing vessels named So What and Whatever. We loved the names and enjoyed meeting Captain Richard. We hope to catch up with the boat in the Bahamas in a couple months. After a great few days of relaxation, good food, and nice people, we were ready to make the 320+ mile trip to North Palm Beach, a journey that would take a little less than two days. The Savannah River has 8-foot tides, so we departed just before noon in order to make it out of the Savannah River on the ebbing tide (so as not to go against the current on the way out) and to arrive in Palm Beach after sunup two days later. Conditions were good, though not quite as smooth as the previous legs. Since leaving Jarrett Bay, we’ve been keeping a list of the things that aren’t working quite right – there are quite a few things on the list which we will address in Florida, but none that we can’t work around (and these will be reported on in a separate post for those who are interested).

Dolphin jumping - timing these jumps for a photo is hard!

After an uneventful night during which we saw little traffic, we had some morning visitors – literally dozens of spotted dolphins that swam along with us for over an hour, frolicking in our bow wake and performing stunning acrobatics. No matter how often we see dolphins, we just never get tired of it! Next it was time to give the fishing poles a try. Out went the lines and then – nothing. Hours passed, the wind blowing about 20-25 knots, and waves building to 4-5 feet. Suddenly, we heard it – the fishing line making its distinctive noise! When we hook a fish, we slow the boat down in order to bring it in. Even a small fish is difficult to haul in at a speed of 8 knots! And this did not appear to be a small one. But when we slowed the boat down, the autopilot immediately sounded an alarm and lost its heading. Other alarms started going off. As we stopped our forward progress, the stabilizers lost their ability to hold the boat steady and the building waves started to rock us nicely. Mind you, the boat has no problem with this, but it’s amazing how different it feels to the crew when you’re getting knocked about. John was on the back deck trying to reel in a monstrous fish, with Leanne assisting, Bradley and I were trying to get our electronics settled down, and meanwhile several things in the galley and salon went crashing to the floor.

Sunset at sea

Things were soon under control again and we made a note of all the things that had set off alarms. Mostly it was caused by our satellite compass losing heading information – a problem we had experienced in similar conditions during our shorter sea trial in Beaufort. This remains on our list to fix once we reach Palm Beach. However, it became clear that we could not slow the boat enough to recover the fish (we were doing 6 knots in neutral) and if we wanted it, we would need to turn into the wind and waves and go back towards it. Regrettably, we decided not to do that and cut the line. Although we lost the fish, it was an excellent sea trial, confirming a few things that need to be fixed. Besides the fish, we also lost a bottle of wine which crashed to the galley floor during the rough part. Fortunately, it did not fall on our brand new carpet!

As night fell and we cruised along the Florida coast, the traffic increased. We passed several ships and tugs, including the Carnival Pride cruise ship, which it seems we pass on every trip up or down the coast! As dawn approached, we arrived at Palm Beach. We entered Ft. Worth Inlet and dropped our anchor so that the guys could dive and inspect and clean the bottom of the boat. They did this with great efficiency, pleased with how everything looked and giving the bottom a very gentle wipe to remove any burgeoning growth. We raised our anchor and continued on into Old Port Cove Marina where we will be for a few weeks while we wrap up our repairs.

Click below to see a video of the sights and sounds from our passage to Savannah (on Youtube). It is meant to show various aspects of a passage and is not set to music so that you can hear some of the actual sounds. It lasts a little over 6 minutes. Continue down for more photos.

If you receive this update by email, remember DON’T REPLY. Click to leave a comment or email me by clicking here. Click any photo to enlarge.

And finally, here is a video of the dolphins we saw along the way.

February 4, 2012

Our next planned stop was Savannah, a trip of just 54 miles. Savannah lies about 15 miles up the Savannah River, a heavily used commercial waterway. Ideally we would have liked to leave St. Helena in daylight and enter the Savannah River in daylight, but the short days and the distance involved made that a difficult task. So we decided to pull our anchor in the late afternoon and enter Savannah at night. All went well and we again had a calm and pleasant passage. We continued to keep notes about small problems with our new systems that will need to be addressed in Florida, but again, most everything performed well. We reached the mouth of the Savannah River at about midnight and though it’s been a while since we did a night entrance to a busy port, Bradley handled the navigation and radio duties like a pro. We passed several ships that were outbound and were overtaken by a few that were inbound. By 2am we were safely moored at the dock of the Westin Golf Resort and Spa. We are looking forward to some sightseeing and relaxation here! And since we have a good internet connection here, below are some photos from our last day in Beaufort and our trip to St Helena Sound via Charleston. Click on any photo to enlarge.

February 1, 2012

Bradley in the Pilot House with new electronics

We have awoken to a wonderful morning in St. Helena Sound in SC, between Charleston and Hilton Head. Our departure from Jarrett Bay went smoothly and we’ve had amazing weather for the first few days. For the first leg of our trip, we wanted to do a day trip in order to test our new systems more extensively. We thought of going to Wrightsville Beach, but it has a tricky entrance and we would be pushing the limits of daylight by the time we got there. So we decided instead to depart Beaufort, see how everything went for the first couple hours and then either return to Beaufort or, if things were going well, continue on overnight to Charleston.

We could not have had better conditions for this trip. Unlike our sea trial of a couple weeks ago where we were tossed around pretty good, this time the seas were calm and peaceful.

The Navy Helicopter engaged in exercises

There were a few minor problems with our systems, which I will detail at the end of this post for those interested, but for the most part, things worked well. After the two-hour assessment point, we decided to push on to Charleston. We saw very little traffic along the way. We did encounter a Canadian Naval Warship and a US Warship conducting exercises and had our first ever VHF radio call with a US Navy Helicopter, which was hovering just above the water and asked us to alter course. As sunset approached, we prepared for an overnight passage. What a gorgeous night! The skies were clear and there were millions of stars. Seas were calm with winds from between 10-20 knots. Electronics, stabilizers, and electrical systems all performed well. We pulled into Charleston Harbor in late afternoon escorted by a bunch of playful dolphins who put on a great show and dropped the hook (anchor). Although we have some good friends in Charleston from our previous visits there, we did not call them as we did not plan to launch the tender and go ashore. It was just a place to get a good night’s sleep before continuing on.

St Helena sunset

The next morning was perfect. After a beautiful sunrise above Ft. Sumter, we raised anchor and continued south to St. Helena. Along the way we conducted some testing of our autopilot system (see below) and gained even more confidence in our systems and how to use them. The past four months of work now seem worth it. The cruising guide book we have warned that the entrance to St Helena is very tricky with lots of shoaling but we had no trouble coming in. Once again a greeting committee of dolphins played on our bow and we were anchored in time for a perfect sunset. The only disappointment of the day was that we had deployed our fishing poles for this trip but had failed to catch a fish. So it was leftovers for dinner – which wasn’t bad – we made a fabulous oyster stew with the leftovers from Steve’s oyster roast!

For those that are interested, here is a summary of some of the issues we had on the way. I will be providing a more detailed report of all the work we did in the coming weeks.

1. We have NavNet 3D and Nobeltec Trident which provide chart plotting and other navigational aids. These systems do talk to each other so that a route created in one system is automatically sent to the other. There were a couple cases in which we activated or modified routes in NavNet and had to close and restart Nobeltec in order to have them show properly. We’re still learning how to use these systems together effectively.
   
2. On the first leg, our autopilot had difficulty making turns of more than 30 degrees. It would oversteer, then have difficulty correcting. On the second leg we conducted some tests and changed a setting in both NavNet and Nobeltec – the waypoint arrival radius. It turns out this was set too low – to 100 feet. That meant that the software did not recognize that we had arrived at a waypoint until we were on top of it, then by the time the autopilot received the instruction to turn, we were past the waypoint, meaning the turn had to be larger. By increasing the “arrival radius”, we now “arrive” at the waypoint and send the instruction to the autopilot 300 feet in advance, making for a smoother turn and no more oversteering. We’ll continue our tests on the next leg.
   
3. We noticed that in Nobeltec the “Time to Go” to a waypoint is sometimes incorrect and different than that shown in NavNet. We will report this to Nobeltec.
   
4. We have had several sensor failure alarms on our Furuno 2100 radar. We are continuing to record and gather information to diagnose.
   
5. We had one instance of NavNet shutting down unexpectedly.
   
6. When we replaced our Nauticomp monitors, they come with controllers which power the monitors on and off, allow input selection, and provide dimming for night use. Initially, the controllers did not dim the monitors. This was corrected by Nauticomp with a software upgrade (which required new units to be installed). The new units did dim the monitors properly, but did not dim themselves. As a result, at night, the monitors were dim but the controllers were lit up like little neon signs! We had to cover them with paper towels to preserve our night vision. Nauticomp has a fix for this already, so we will correct when we arrive in Florida.
   

On watch with 19 knots of wind outside - we love sailing, BUTa Nordhavn does have some advantages! ! Note that is Nobeltec on the left and NavNet on the right

The above list is not meant to be complete or extensive – just to give you a feel for the kinds of things we are experiencing. Luckily none of them are serious enough to be safety issues. We continue to be very attentive when on watch and very conscious of every waypoint change when running on autopilot!

Once again, photos on this post are limited due to bandwidth issues – we are using an AT&T tethering data plan with a Telular device which provides a boat based wifi system. But it’s not high speed and we have limits on data. However, it is nice to be here where all we can see is water and shoreline with no people, no boats, and no cars in sight and still have internet and cell phone access!

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January 29, 2012

Jenny enjoying a bone we brought her during her recovery. She has a bandaged front paw and stitches in her head.

It is with distinctly mixed emotions that we bid farewell to Jarrett Bay, where Shear Madness has been and the community of Sea Gate where her crewed have lived for the past four months. One of the best things about the cruising life is the unexpected wonderful things that can come from what at first seem to be disasters or plain bad luck. Yes, there’s been a lot of tough, grind it out work in facilitating our repairs. There have been many frustrations along the way. And I will write more about those later, I promise. But now we are feeling good. We are back on the water with all the repaired systems running just fine. We have calm seas and little wind. These conditions are about as good as it gets. We are headed south and will stop in at either Charleston, SC or St. Helena, just a little further south for a night or two before heading on to Savannah.

But as happy as we are to be back on our journey, it was hard the past couple days saying goodbye to all the great new friends we made in Beaufort. Sea Gate, the community where we rented our house, is a fabulous place, full of people who will share their internet connection, invite you to their parties, lend you their books, invite you to dinner, loan you their cars, and become lifelong friends in a very short time. Sea Gate even has a neighborhood dog, Jenny, who serves as the unofficial mayor. Jenny does live in a house, but she is most often out on patrol, welcoming guests and keeping up with everyone in the community. She was one of the first ones we met when we went out for our first walk in the neighborhood. The spirit of Sea Gate was evident when Jenny was hit by a car and disappeared into the woods. It was late afternoon and soon the word was out – everyone needed to help find Jenny! Bradley and I took to our bikes and the search was on.

Steve checks to see if the oysters are done

The amazing thing was how many people were out there looking – on foot, on bike, in golf carts, in cars, even in the cab of a semi. We were all scouring the streets and trails, stopping to visit with one another and share a real sense of community. Unfortunately we did not find Jenny, even when the search continued the next day. But lo and behold, late that evening, she showed up, battered and bruised, but alive and with no serious injuries. She’s going to be just fine and within minutes the word was spreading and we were ecstatic to get the call that she was OK. We had a chance to attend several dinner parties as well as the community Holiday and New Year’s Eve parties. During our last week, we had dinner invitations almost every night. It’s hard to put into words how special our Sea Gate experience was.

We also made many friends among those who did work on Shear Madness while she was at Jarrett Bay. Our electrician Steve and his family adopted John and Leanne for Christmas while Bradley and I headed to Virginia and Florida. And Steve’s family also hosted us all for a good bye oyster roast at their home the night before our departure. If you’ve never been to a good ole southern oyster roast, you don’t know what you’re missing! A fire, some cinder blocks, a piece of tin, a wet blanket, some sawhorses and plywood for a table, some vinegar, hot sauce and cornbread, followed by Smores at the campfire – all I can say is YUM!

Doreen and Scarlett, two of our photogenic Sea Gate friends at the Shear Madness Happy Hour

Once the boat repairs were nearly complete and we were back in the water, we invited all our new friends on board for a Happy Hour. This marked our official transition from “work mode” back to “Cruise mode”. Now we are heading south – we’ll do an overnight passage to St. Helena or Charleston, then on to Savannah, and then to Florida. The entire Shear Madness crew would like to thank all our new friends in NC and all our old friends from all over the world for your support and friendship over these past months.

This is being published while underway with limited bandwidth, so photos will be minimal! More will be posted later……as I publish this we are now about an hour away from Charleston Harbor and will anchor there for the night. Another post about our passage to follow shortly!

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January 26, 2012

Make sure this is the DIESEL tank!

Filling up your Nordhavn is not quite like filling up your car. Shear Madness holds 4465 gallons of diesel in 5 separate tanks. Two aft tanks hold 1400 gallons each, two forward tanks hold 800 gallons each, and a “day tank” holds 65 gallons. The engines draw fuel from the day tank which can accept fuel from any of the other tanks through a series of valves and transfer pumps. Fully loaded, our fuel weighs over 32,000 pounds, so it’s important to keep the port and starboard tanks relatively equal to prevent listing to one side or the other.

We had only a couple hundred gallons of fuel in our tanks when we arrived in NC. Since we were planning to fill up, the first step is to negotiate a good price! Given the variation in fuel prices between states and between marinas within states, filling up at the wrong place can costs hundreds of dollars.

John keeps track of how muc is added as we alternate filling between tanks

A check of marinas up and down the east coast and input from fellow Nordhavn owners who have recently fueled up confirmed our own research that showed NC was a good place to buy fuel. Jarrett Bay agreed to match the price of another marina if we committed to a large purchase, so we were able to get a good discount off the regular price.

The next step is to move the boat to the fuel dock. It’s just a short move, but despite the lack of wind (good), there was a very strong current (bad) making Bradley thankful for the fully operational bow and stern thrusters. We took our time and made a couple approaches to the fuel dock where we were soon safely moored.

Bradley and John determine how much more we need in aft tanks

Next is to determine the order in which to fill the tanks. First, the day tank is filled from fuel in the other onboard tanks. Then we ensure that we have opened the diesel fill holes (which look just like the ones for filling the water tanks – there are many stories out there of people putting water in their fuel tanks or vice versa!). Then we ensure that the hose we are putting in is connected to Diesel fuel, not gasoline (ditto previous comment). Before adding the fuel, we add the appropriate amount of fuel treatment – in our case Stanadyne Performance Formula Diesel Fuel Additive, which is designed to clean, protect, and stabilize the fuel. Then we start fueling the aft tanks, adding several hundred gallons to one before switching to the other in order to keep them somewhat balanced. This is repeated until both tanks are at the desired level. Then this process is repeated for the forward tanks. Throughout this process, John is monitoring the hose while Bradley is observing the tanks from inside the boat, watching the sight gauges as fuel is added and ensuring no leaks are apparent. John and Bradley communicate via two-way radio to ensure that all is OK and to coordinate switching between tanks. Someone on the dock monitors the gallon counter and keeps John apprised of how much fuel has been added.

Leanne and Lisa (from Jarrett Bay) finish with the gasoline for the tender

The whole process takes several hours. Once we are full of diesel fuel, we also take on some gasoline, which is used in our tender (the smaller boat used for going ashore when we are at anchor). Our tender holds about 60 gallons of gasoline and we have an onboard tank that holds an additional 60 gallons.

The next step is the hardest of all – we have to pay for the fuel! In this case, we had agreed to pay by check in order to get the best price. Since we do almost all our banking online these days, writing a real check is a bit of a novelty! We took on 3800.2 gallons of diesel and 76 gallons of gasoline, so the total was just over $13,000. Fortunately, we don’t have to fill up very often! This will take us over 4000 miles, enough to get us to Florida, the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, back to the Caribbean, and then some!

For now, we just move back to our regular dock, full of fuel and ready to go! After all these months, we are finally ready to go cruising. But wouldn’t you know it – now the weather has decided to turn nasty, with high winds and big seas forecast through the weekend. So we’ll stay put until this passes, then start our journey south. Hopefully this will give me a chance to post a couple more updates!

Here’s a short (1 min) video of the process, set to appropriate music:

Fueling Up

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January 13, 2012

The Paparazzi are out as Shear Madness hits the water!

Shear Madness is back in the water! Much more work has been done and I will provide more details of that work in my next post, but for now, we are tired of talking about work and repairs! Yesterday we conducted sea trials! That means we went out into the ocean to test all the newly installed and/or repaired electronics, hydraulics, bow and stern thrusters, and inverters. Ideally, you do not want to conduct sea trials in calm waters – it’s good to have a bit of seas in order to give the systems a good test. Well, we sure did that! Winds were blowing 25-30 knots as we left the dock. Engines, bow and stern thrusters performed well and soon we were back on the water! We headed down the intracoastal waterway (ICW).

Along for the ride were Brian from Celtic Marine Electronics and Justin from American Bow Thruster (ABT) to test and fine tune the systems they had installed. While still in the ICW we performed some tests and turned some slow circles to calibrate compass and autopilot systems. Brian was able to find and correct a problem that was causing inaccurate heading data to be sent to the autopilot resulting in problems holding a course. Once corrected, the autopilot performed well, so we headed for the open ocean.

Brian and Bradley in calm waters during sea trial

The good news is that the systems, as well as the crew, got quite a good test! As the ICW gave way to the ocean, the wind was a-blowing and the waves were steep and short, resulting in a pretty wild ride! In fact, it was the roughest conditions we have experienced on this boat. Fortunately the boat and the systems handled things pretty well, as did the crew. Since we had not anticipated such rough conditions, we had not adequately secured everything and had a few “flying missiles” and a few crashes and bangs, but no serious damage. After a good run in which we turned in all directions to give the stabilizers a good workout with seas coming from all directions, we turned and headed back into the ICW. We all breathed a sigh of relief as we entered the calmer waters.

While there are still a few minor issues to deal with, the end is now in sight! We are hoping to depart NC within the next week or two. The boat has now been washed and the interior thoroughly cleaned. It’s starting to look like a boat again and not a mad scientist’s workshop.

December 10, 2011

Some of the electronics equipment

Brian, Ryan, and Troy from Celtic Marine Electronics arrived before Thanksgiving to begin installing our new electronics. Brian arrived with a truckload of equipment to add to that which had already been shipped to us. This included dozens of boxes filled with new toys – radar, Navnet, AIS, VHS, SSB, transducers, telephones, satellite phone, amplifiers, video processors, GPS Compass, cameras, computers, miles of cable, and more. After 260 man-hours of labor, most of it was installed. Unfortunately, our new monitors, which are required to display information in the pilot house, have not yet arrived. They are made in Japan and are way behind schedule due to the earthquake earlier this year. The boat is still out of the water and Brian will return once it is launched and the monitors have arrived. That will allow the final installations and a sea trial to test everything.

Steve (electrician) and John work on anchor windlass

On the electrical side, we continue to make good progress. Steve the electrician and John have got the new inverters successfully installed and working! That is a huge step as this was the most complicated of the electrical tasks. There is plenty of work remaining but it is proceeding nicely. In the meantime, Bradley has been working with Mayda from Jarrett Bay to reconfigure our sea-chest. This is where sea water is brought into the boat and circulated to cool the generators, air conditioners, and other equipment (the main engines have a separate seawater intake system). The re-configuration will improve the flow of water by eliminating several “elbow” pipes and streamlining the plumbing.

John and Sergio inspect sanding of bottom

Work on the bottom of the boat is now behind schedule. The sanding and preparation for painting has taken longer than planned and we now have to hope for some good weather over the next few weeks in order to complete the painting. The boat’s hull is painted with a barrier coat, then several coats of anti-fouling paint which prevent growth from occurring on the hull. We still need to have our new stabilizer controls installed, but will schedule that to occur just before the boat goes back into the water as they will need to be tested in a sea-trial. Although the davit (crane) has not yet been repaired, we were able to remove the tender (dinghy) from the deck and have replaced the leaky valves in its tube and repaired some dings in its hull. Leanne and Kathy have also given it a good cleaning and polishing and we’ve been able to get out on the water for some touring and boat-handling practice. The new carpet for the salon and pilot house has arrived and the first of our dining room chairs has been re-covered. We can’t wait to see the difference it will make, but installing the new carpet will be the last thing we do before leaving here.

John and Leanne at end of Neusiok Trail

It looks like Carolina will be our home through mid-January but at least the end is now in sight! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Sea Gate and our friend Meg and Jordan (our dog who now lives with Meg) came over from Raleigh to spend Thanksgiving with us. Jordan got his first glimpse of the ocean when we visited Atlantic Beach. He liked the beach but thought the water tasted awful funny! Meg, Jordan, and I also managed a visit to Southport to visit my friend Nancy and her dogs. John, Leanne, Meg, and Kathy went hiking along the Neusiok Trail in the Croatan National Forest. Last weekend we covered 8.5 miles of the trail and today, John, Leanne, and Kathy completed the remaining 12.5 miles. Fortunately, we avoided the many men with guns we encountered along the way – it is hunting season here!

The weather has been fabulous and we hope it continues!

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November 17, 2011

(By Kathy)

Warning: This post is more technical so if you don’t really care about details of our electrical systems just browse the photos and wait for the next post!

Steve from Offshore Marine Electronics has been aboard nearly every day working with John to diagnose and fix a variety of electrical problems. I wanted to give you a sense of what this has entailed. There are dozens more examples, but I think you’ll get the idea.

Steve with a long list of updates to our drawings

Good news – we have extensive electrical wiring diagrams for the boat. Bad news – the diagrams are from the design stage and don’t quite match what was actually built. Sometimes this is a minor annoyance and other times it causes wild goose chases resulting in wasted time and frustration. Steve so far has an entire legal pad filled with changes that need to be made. By the end of this process we will have updated drawings that come closer to matching what is actually on the boat.

Here are a few examples of things being fixed:

Bilge high water alarm failed – replaced

Fuel tank water sensor failed – parts on order

Back up fresh water pump failed – new pump ordered. However due to both flawed design change last year that had to be redesigned by the manufacturer and the impact of the Japanese earthquake, earliest delivery date is 1^st quarter next year.

Pilot house fans failed – replaced

Electrical remote bus switches and transformers tested

Hydraulic alternators shorted – rectifiers replaced and new regulator on order

Electrical circuit breakers blown – replaced

Spot Light slave control failed – replaced

Five Windshield wiper switches replaced

Freshwater, Grey water, and Black Water tanks level sensors shorted out – replacement tank sensors and display units installed

Port & Starboard Windlass controls failed – new Autoanchor controls ordered

Link 10 (used to monitor batter levels) not operational – new unit installed

Main electrical switchboard displays shorted – new units installed – need to be calibrated

Marquipt davit (crane) not operational – parts on order – the parts have to be shipped to Marquipt, then undergo some programming before getting to us!

Sea Fire system not operational – new parts installed and system tested and re-certified

Dozens of lights and dimmers not operational – being tested and replaced as needed

There are currently 67 items on the electrical checklist, some complete, some in progress, some still to be started. This does not include the electronics, which will be covered in a separate post.

By far the greatest challenge on the electrical side is the replacement of our inverters/chargers. These are the devices which control the power on the boat. In charger mode they convert incoming 240V AC shore power (or onboard generator power) to 24V DC to charge the 2040 Amp Hour battery bank and, conversely, convert (invert) 24V DC from the battery bank to 120 and 240V AC for ships services (and air conditioning) when AC power (shore or generator) is not available.

Old inverters awaiting removal

We had two Xantrex Trace inverters which (of course) are no longer made. With no possibility of simply replacing the inverters, we had to develop a plan which would a) physically fit into the same space b) provide the same amount of power and battery charging capability, and c) entail as little re-wiring as possible. While this may seem like an easy task, it was not. After days spent on research and talking with consultants, the choices were narrowed to two – Outback and Mastervolt. Neither was a perfect solution, but in the end we settled on MasterVolt because it provides a similar level of charging and inverting capacity as our existing system and requires minimal rewiring of existing boat systems.

While Steve and John will be able to install the system, we had to engage a consultant to design it and to provide details of how it is to be installed. Parts have been ordered and this will be the biggest electrical job. Perhaps the scariest moment to date occurred when John and Steve removed the old inverters. The inverters cannot simply be “turned off”, they must be physically disconnected from both AC and DC inputs and outputs. John and Steve studied the wiring diagrams, ensured that all bypasses were engaged to route AC power to the rest of the boat when the inverters were removed, disconnected AC and DC power inputs and outputs to electrically isolate the inverters/charges, and disconnected the remote control panels – which had also been damaged. Finally they checked that all terminals had no voltage on them. However, despite all this, when one power leg was removed there was a spark and a voltage spike occurred blowing a 120V power filter. Seemingly not possible and we are still working to understand what happened and why. Notwithstanding this anomaly, the inverters were successfully removed, all 210 pounds of them, and boat power has been restored in a bypass mode until the new Mastervolt installation is up and running.

One more frustrating project is the installation of a new blower (fan) for the lower cabin. A new fan had been ordered and received and John was ready to install it. Installation is quite an adventure in itself as it requires a journey through a tiny opening to a very restrictive space very deep but narrow. Let’s just say this is not a space where Bradley will ever venture. After making his preparations, John descended and began asking for a variety of tools which an assistant (me) duly handed down to him. After an hour of work, John determined that the new fan was the wrong kind and would not work. It wasn’t wasted effort, but it was frustrating because of the difficulty of access. At least we now know what we need and we’ll get it done next time. Since it’s very difficult to describe these kinds of restricted spaces, here is a video of John trying to get OUT of the space (click to play):

John’s Escape

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Sergio installs new engine and thruster controls

The best news of the week concerned the installation of the remaining control units for the engines and bow and stern thrusters. We have five separate control stations for engine throttle and thruster controls – Pilot House, Fly Bridge, Aft cockpit, and Port and Starboard on the Portuguese Bridge (the walkway outside the big windows in the Pilot House). We had not been able to install the controls on the Portuguese Bridge because the electronic units (brains of the system) are housed inside cabinets in the port and starboard guest cabins. Nobody had been able to figure out how to get the old units out and the new ones in without cutting an access panel into the outside of the boat. It is never desirable to cut holes in a boat and they will almost always leak at some point. Nevertheless, we had proceeded on getting quotes for cutting the access panels. Finally, we talked to one last person, Tim and Sergio from Core Creek Marine, who assured us he could do it without cutting an access panel. Sure enough, he had the tools, experience, and skill to do it! So the new units are now installed and we are thrilled with that outcome.

Sanding the bottom

Core Creek is also doing work on our bottom. This falls into the category of general maintenance and is not related to the lightning damage. Nevertheless, it’s a big job. Shear Madness is now covered with a plastic skirt while workers in protective gear are sanding her hull below the waterline in preparation for new bottom paint. This paint, called anti-fouling, is designed to protect the hull and to prevent growth of marine creatures (barnacles, grasses, etc.). During the process, all the propellers are also cleaned and treated with special coating. This work is now underway at full speed.

We’ve also had all of our fire extinguishers (9 of them, plus 3 Sea Fire systems in the engine room) and our primary EPIRB (emergency beacon – we have one primary one and one on each of our two life rafts) serviced and tested. We’ve also selected new carpet for the salon and pilot house and new material for re-upholstering our dining chairs. The tender has been lifted off using a boatyard crane and is being serviced. Planning is in progress for stabilizer and watermaker repairs.

Brian and Troy from Celtic Marine Electronics have arrived to start installing the new electronics. More on that next time! Please click comment button to leave a comment!

November 6, 2011

(by Kathy)

We are still working at a frantic pace on repairs and are picking up steam. Solutions are being identified, parts are arriving, and lots of projects are in progress. Leanne and Kathy are busy with inventorying all the equipment, spare parts, and other items onboard. We’re updating and servicing our safety gear and medical kits. We’re also getting quotes on some new carpeting and re-upholstering of chairs and some other minor interior upgrades. Brian and Troy from Celtic Marine Electronics will arrive next week to start installing new equipment. We’ll provide an update on the progress of all our repairs and include some more technical details in the next post.

New Electrical Panels Installed and Working

One of the things we most enjoyed about cruising in Australia and New Zealand was how friendly and helpful people were to complete strangers. Offers to loan us cars, people bringing things from their gardens, people picking us up hitch-hiking and going out of their way to deliver us to our destination, being given free fish, lobsters and abalone – the list goes on! And I’m very happy to report that back here in the USA, we are again experiencing the best side of human nature. Here are just a few examples.

Earlier this year, while downsizing some of our possession in anticipation of selling our house, I became a frequent user of Freecycle, posting many items I couldn’t keep but couldn’t bring myself to throw out. This led to meeting many interesting people, some of whom became repeat customers, including Vera, who is from Siberia. On her last visit to my house, she had just returned from Siberia, and presented me with a special gift, a necklace of a Siberian girl made with real reindeer fur. I love it!

After our house was sold, our wonderful friend and Jordan’s “Aunt Meg” volunteered to take Jordan (our dog) to live with her in North Carolina. But Meg could not take him for two weeks. Our gracious neighbor Rose Marie came to the rescue, offering to let me and Jordan stay at her house for as long as needed (and we had other foster home volunteers too). Then we had the great fortune to find Sweet Hope and Captain George (see entry of Sept 28^th), who helped guide us down the intracoastal waterway to North Carolina. The trip would not have been possible for us without an escort.

Dinner with Milt & Judy and David & Debbie

Once in North Carolina, we found a great house to rent. Unfortunately, it does not have internet service, which nearly made us pass it up. Enter Frank next door, who has internet and allowed us to put a router in his house so that we could stay connected. He then introduced us to other neighbors who have been invaluable in helping us to find reputable local contractors to work on the boat. The Sea Gate Marina folks have also been great, allowing us to store our kayak there and to bring our bottles and cans over for recycling. And our landlords have been great – friendly and helpful.

Soon we had an email from Billy, a fellow Nordhavn owner who lives nearby and had heard we were here but who we had never met. He showed up with some fabulous blueberry muffins, offered us the use of his car (but we already had a rental) and brought us maps and information about all the fun things to do in the area. Our electrician showed up last week with several pounds of fresh shrimp and the woman who does boat interiors brought us a large bag of herbs from her garden.

We caught up with our Nordhavn friends Dave and Debbie from Grace of Tides who were passing through, as well as Milt and Judy from Bluewater (a Nordhavn 47) and had a wonderful dinner together. Just last week, one of our Nordhavn Dreamers friends, Michael, introduced us to other friends of his, Steve and Linda, who are also here for work on their boat and we’ve already had a lovely dinner together and found them a house to rent right here in Sea Gate.

John uses the handheld GPS to get close to a cache

I have brought my car down here from Virginia and for months have been battling a problem with a slow leak in one tire. I went to a local tire shop where they spent an hour removing the tire, finding that the problem was a broken valve stem (which turns out to be a special kind that ties into the tire pressure monitoring system), replacing it with a regular valve stem and recommending I get the proper one from a dealer and then refusing to let me pay anything!

So even though the lightning strike was a bit like a kick in the gut, there are so many good things that have happened – it has really helped restore our faith in the goodness of people! Thanks to all of those mentioned here and the many others who have offered advice and moral support! It has meant a lot to us and we promise never again to say “that would never happen in the US”!

We are still enjoying the area and have been walking, running, and kayaking as often as possible. This weekend I introduced John and Leanne to Geocaching, an outdoor activity involving using a GPS to find “treasures” hidden in strange places by other people (see http://www.geocaching.com/). This weekend we found three caches. One of them required two visits and one of them took us to the Croatan National Forest, where we did a six mile walk and will definitely return for some more hiking!

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