Project Day

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Near Melbourne FL, N28 05.936 W080 36.656

We got a lot accomplished today. Steamed down the river to Melbourne. We had to cut back to 1500 RPM and 3.8 knots to keep the engine from overheating. I gotta find the raw water strainer. It must be plugged. I also need to buy new batteries.

Ed and Sally Mills came to the marina to help me with the projects. We took the old batteries out. They were 45 months old on a 48 month warranty. We took them to West Marine and bought two new gel cell batteries 86ah each. The gel cells are expensive but worth the money. Zero maintenance for one thing.
We installed the new batteries, and then we had to change the battery charger and the engine voltage regulator for gel cell settings rather than flooded battery settings. I had instruction books for both and Ed helped.

Finally, after searching the whole engine compartment I couldn’t find the raw water filter. So I traced the hoses and found it in the bilge, not in the engine compartment. Sure enough the filter and inlet hose were clogged with grass. That was causing the engine heating problems.

With all projects done the wind came up so it was the perfect time for a sail. This stretch of the Indian River is the only one with deep enough water to let one ignore the channel. We had a splendid couple of hours of sailing and I thing Ed was impressed. This was his first time on a “real” sailboat.

One mishap. We grounded getting out of the marina, but this time we were able to back out using the engine.