Getting wired

One of the things that had to be replaced was the battery charger. It was the type that did not trickle charge. So the charge did not downsize. This type of charger is tough on the batteries. And it may be one of the reasons that the batteries were dry when we got on board Sojourner.

So we now have installed a trickles charger and also replaced all the old batteries that were near the end of their useful life. It is worth the peace of mind to get out the old batteries that were about five years old and have ones that we know have not been "cooked".

Another project that we are doing is wiring in a cockpit speaker that can be tuned to VHF or stereo. Also I have wired in a red light for the cockpit floor that provides some illumination gettin on and off the boat.

The last project will be the shower sump project in which we are wiring up a bilge pump. More on that later.

The stuffing box!

The stuffing box adjustment seems to be frozen. We would like to adjust it because there is about one drip per second after it has been sitting. If the shaft is turned there is a steady stream of water.

We haven't been able to make adjustments with the bronze wrenches. Too much tension could break the wrenches so we have to figure something else out. Loads of PB Blaster will be tried. I would hate to have to pull her from the water just to adjust the stuffing box and repack it.

Perhaps someone out there has a suggestion about what to do. We want really clean bilges with no accumulation of salt water.

Tracing wires and hoses

We have spent quite a bit of time tracing the hoses for the bilge pumps. There is a shower sump that drains into the bilge from the head sink and shower. The previous owners would drain this by lifting the shower drain pump back and forth from the sump to the bilge. This is not a satisfactory solution for us.

I realize that Carl Alberg left the draining of the sump to the owner's discretion. We do not want to drill another thru hull. What we are going to attempt is to place a tee in the manual bilge pump discharge and have a separate shower sump pump hooked up there. I will write about how that goes.

Both seacocks are now unfrozen and operational. We know where all the plumbing lines go. The seacocks under the galley sink had to have the nut backed off a little until the cock moved freely. We then tightened it down until there was no drip and the seacock moved freely.

The electrical wiring is in place but there are a few changes that we are making. First, all four house batteries have been replaced and a new start battery is installed. The charging system will be upgraded so that the batteries are not constantly being charged at 15 amps. We will also be adding a small red LED light in the cockpit so that there is some indirect cockpit lighting. We will also hookup an external speaker for the VHF so it can heard in the cockpit. Things are moving along.