September 18-24, 2000 -- Work Commences

This morning, we talked with Braxton, the Yard Manager and then pulled onto the T-head. They later moved the boat into the work slip down the narrow alley, after committing to be responsible for any damage. After getting settled in, we looked at the problem with the windless not working from the helm switches. The problem is not at the windless, we will check out the switches at a later time before we leave. On September 19, we spent the day reconfiguring our breaker panel in preparation for the new inverter. This is also needed to extend the life of the new batteries with 3 stage charging. We decided to move the inverter breaker panel up with the regular AC breakers since this would enable us to use the current wiring without running new wires to the lights & outlets. We moved breakers around on the panel so that all of the inverted items would be together and could use a bar to power them as compared to separate wires. Also we needed to re-balance the AC load for the generator. By the end of the day, we had completed this task, and had moved all the AC breakers up to the main panel. On September 20, the freezer guy showed up to do the warranty work on it. There were a couple of smalls leaks that were causing the problem along with a faulty expansion valve. We also started to run the AC wires for the new inverter/charger. On September 21, we completed running the wires and moved the inverter control panel up to where the breaker panel is. (This job took a long time, we worked a total of about 20 hours on it.) On September 22, we prepared the area where the inverter/charger will mount, we mounted wood panels to mount it up to. The old chargers where quite a bit larger and the mounting area needed to be cleaned up before they could be mounted. The yard had their end of summer party and we where invited. We had a great time, Mike did not stay to long after lunch as he wanted a nap. I decided to nap later, so I stayed and played horseshoes and volleyball. On September 23, we installed part 1 of the "OOPS" system. The aft head bilge is now protected. This system is produced by a company called Liberty Bay Solutions. It is a water filter case that holds a filter that traps petroleum products while letting the water go over board. This way, if we ever do have an oil leak, we are protected from getting fined! On September 24, since we already had the port locker apart, we ran the wires for the Lazzerette bilge pumps. It turns out that we did not have to run a new wire for the aft stateroom VHF because of the way the breaker had originally been wired. Finally, we reassembled the aft stateroom