July 24 - 28, 2000 -- Stuff

On July 24, we set about consolidating the stuff we had spread out between the port and starboard staterooms, into only one stateroom. We decided to put everything in the port stateroom. After that, we reviewed the contents of the storage area under the starboard berth. We found lots of paper towels. At the same time, we also decided to check out our storm sails and other stuff stored there. On July 25, we started out the day removing the wallpaper from the starboard stateroom. After working on that for most of the day, we headed over to Ellysia to help with their radio problem. We had forgotten several crucial steps and it took most of the afternoon to remember them! However, we had a lot of fun hanging out with Eric and Susan. On July 26, we focused on correcting a wiring issue with the bunk light in the starboard stateroom. We decided to splice the light over the bunk with the wire to the overhead lights in the cabin. The bottom line is, now the light works! It rained all day! We decided to put out a tarp and funnel to catch rain water to fill our tanks. They filled completely, so we took advantage of the excess water to do a load of laundry, a load of dishes and take a shower. At 5:30 PM or so, we started receiving cancellations for the cocktail party that was scheduled for tonight. The only folks that were able to make it were Lex and Linda from Lexel. We spent a great evening with them. On July 27, we called Oxford Boat Yard to find out the amp draw on the new autopilot pump that they are installing for us. They needed some additional information, so Mike crawled into the lazzerette to get it. While he was down there, we discovered that a cotter pin had broken and needed to be replaced, but we were able to get all of the information that they needed. We also called Heart to find out exactly how to wire up our alternator so the link panel was aware of the charge coming into it. We got the information and rewired our link panel shunt, then hooked up the alternator feed wire. It worked! That evening, we had a rescheduled cocktail party. It was a lot of fun. We had Vagabond Tiger, Shamaal, Elyssia, Mutual Fun, Goody Two Shoes, and Zaftra all came out. It was a tad bit on the crowded side, but everyone was comfortable and the cocktail party ran until almost midnight! On July 28, we pulled out wires from the electrical panels that are no longer used. This freed up some space to run new wires when we are ready to do that. We need to finish removing this wiring, since we only half removed it. Our inverter still isn't acting quite right, so I placed a second call to Heart, and found out that we had to make a second modification to the shunt wiring. We did that; we will see how it goes tonight!