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Larry's LogThe air conditioner continued to work on Friday - hopefully it will be fine for the foreseeable future. Diane went shopping to a large 'wholesale' type store this morning and I continued working on the switchbox. It needed to be waterproofed so the wood wouldn't rot (even though it was marine plywood) so I had to coat it in epoxy. I also drilled the holes for the screws that would hold it to the bulkhead of the anchor. I drilled them a few sizes larger so I could fill them with epoxy and then redrill the holes to the proper size, thereby having no wood exposed to possible water leaks. Diane got back from running a few errands and after helping her and having lunch, I worked on some wiring for the windlass under the v berth. It had started to rain pretty hard so I couldn't work outside. I had just finished the small wiring job when I saw some water on the forward part of the v berth. At first I thought it was a small drip from the windlass boltholes, but they were dry. Then I saw where the water was coming from - the inner forestay chainplate was leaking. Great! Another project. Saturday morning the air conditioner was acting up again, doing the same thing by tripping the breaker. It happened twice and Diane called the a/c guy who said he would try to stop by. He didn't but by keeping the system on 'test', I managed to prevent it from tripping again, at least we kept cool. It was very fortunate since it rained almost all day and keeping the boat cool with the hatches closed would have been impossible. I did manage to get some work done. I sanded the box for the switches and drilled the screw holes that were filled with epoxy, and then used those as a template to drill out the holes in the anchor well where I wanted to mount the box. I then enlarged the holes and dug out some of the balsa core in preparation for putting in some epoxy to prevent moisture from seeping in. Unfortunately, it started raining before I could do it so I had to move 'operations' inside. After lunch, while Diane looked at a list of DVD movies a friend was going to lend us, I sanded and put another coat of epoxy on the switch box. I was running short of epoxy resin so I'd need to get some more but I had just enough for coating the box again. Actually, I have some System 3 epoxy that I got before we left cruising, but the hardener is for cooler temperatures and I don't think I would have much time to work with it this far south. The hardener I use with the West System epoxy is slow acting, giving me about 20 minutes of pot life. About 5, we had a tremendous thunderclap and lightening - it blew out the electricity for the marina. Luckily it came back on about 7. Sunday I took life a little slower but I still worked on the windlass until about 4. I put another coat of epoxy on the switchbox, using the System 3 stuff I had from the States. I liked the product but couldn't get it in the Caribbean and the hardener I had made for a short pot life to the mixed epoxy. Since I only had a little to do and could work in the air conditioning inside the boat, it wasn't bad. I also drilled the holes in the anchor well to mount the switchbox and the small support I made for it. I drilled them out to about ½ inch diameter, removed some of the balsa core and filled them with epoxy as well. By the time Diane got back from playing dominoes, I was ready to just relax. The next morning, I finally re-mounted the anchor wash down. Although it just required drilling another hole, pulling the hose up through the hole and screwing on the fitting took much of the morning, by the time I decided exactly where to locate it and then pulled the hose back up through the new hole. After lunch I ran the wires for the switchbox. I drilled another hole through the side of the anchor well and ran the wires, eventually using duplex wire after stripping about 5 feet of the outer jacket and another black primary wire (the switches required 3 wires since the 'hot' lead was shared by both switches). I had just finished putting the connectors on and connecting everything under the v berth when Diane got back (around 5) from her shower and errands and said that our friends were coming at 5:30. Suzi and David on Ariyl had finally gotten to PLC and were now in another marina but they were coming over for drinks and to have dinner at the restaurant here. So, while I didn't get to relax before they came over, it was really great to see them again. We hadn't seen them since last year when we left to go to Bonaire and they were in Bahia Redonda. They had spent much of the winter in the USVI with Tom and Steph on Mima, and they had also brought back some stuff from there for us - salsa, peanut butter, cereal, etc. that's unavailable in Venezuela. We had dinner and had a realty nice time catching up again. The first thing I did Tuesday morning was hook up the foot switches temporarily, turn on the breaker and try the windlass. It does work!!! The forward and reverse are both good and it seems to run faster than the old one as well. The motor has so much torque that the 50-pound windlass almost jumped when I pushed the 'up' switch. Of course, there's much left to do but at least I know it works. I disconnected the switches and worked on the switch box. I needed to get some wire through-deck fittings but the only ones the local chandleries have are too small for the 3 wires that have to pass through the anchor well side and into the foot switch box. I disconnected all the large cables and then removed the windlass and wood pad so I could work on the pad some more - it needed one more coat of epoxy on the bottom. I also figured out a different way to lead the wires through the deck and into the switch box. I decided to use the 2 disks that I cut out from the Lexan piece for the switch holes as wire guides and strain reliefs by enlarging the holes so the 3 wires would fit through and then drilling 3 holes for screws to hold it to the bulkhead. I then cut out some thick rubber gasket material to pass the wires through as well as acting as a gasket. I could then fill in the slight gaps with silicone after fitting everything. Finally, I sanded the switch box and the removed the epoxy drips (solidified) on the bottom of the wood mounting pad with a sharp chisel. After that I quit for the day and took a shower. Unfortunately, when I got back, the a/c had stopped working - the compressor now wouldn't blow any cold air. Of course, the a/c guy hadn't shown up. Since the a/c was down, Wednesday night was pretty uncomfortable. We used the fans but they didn't help too much. The a/c guy came at 9:15 and looked at the unit for about an hour. He tested it with an ammeter and took the case off to examine the compressor. Unfortunately, he felt that the unit wasn't worth fixing at this point - the compressor was running very hot and he recommended buying a new one. We thanked him and Diane went to make some arrangements with a taxi driver, Roger, to take us to some of the refrigeration places in PLC. David, from Ariyl, came over a little while after that to borrow a tool and then we left to get a new air conditioner. We went to several stores but they didn't have what we needed. The old unit was 12,000 BTU and we felt that was a good size. Several stores had that size but only in 220 volts and we needed 110 volts. After looking in 3-4 stores for about 30 minutes, Roger dropped us off and we had lunch at a very nice restaurant with a great view of the Caribbean; it was on the third floor of a hotel on the main paseo in town. It was noon anyway and the stores were now closed for siesta until 2 or 3, so we had plenty of time. After a very nice lunch, we walked around to the other stores we missed and found one finally that fit the criteria. We looked for some others but really only found one unit, a Panasonic. Well, I like their electronic equipment so maybe their air conditioners are good also. We met Roger at 3, exactly on time and where we discussed before lunch, went to look at another 2 stores but finally went back to buy the Panasonic. We also bought a surge protector meant for a/c units. The one I bought before had burned the hot side of the outlet. We got back to the marina and a guy we knew helped get it on the boat (we had promised him the old one - he said he would try to get it fixed although we told him what the problem was). Anyway, I got the unit setup after some small modifications to the foam insulation I have to surround the hatch it sat over. This unit was wider but not as deep as the old one but I got it to fit and we finally had cold air again by 5:30. It took the entire day to find, buy and install an air conditioner (and people wonder what we do all day!) After a very comfortable night, I started again on the windlass project (seemingly never ending). Took the windlass off the mounting pad after first disconnecting the cables from underneath. I put another coat of epoxy on the bottom of the mounting pad and the bottom of the switch box. Because I'm using the System 3 epoxy with normal hardener, I only get about 8-9 minutes to work with it so I can't mix too much or do a large job. I did manage to get another layer of epoxy with filler in the holes for the switch box in the anchor well though, making them flush with the sides. I also finally mounted the wash down fitting again after cleaning it a little. I had already cut out the hole for the hose connection to come through the anchor well side and drilled the holes for the screws to hold the fitting so I cleaned the area and used silicone to bed it. In the evening, we went over to see Suzi and David at Aqua Vi Marina. We had a very nice time with them and took a little tour of the marina since we had never been there before - it was very nice. Friday it was very hot all day but the new a/c handled it well and the boat never got above 74 degrees, while the outside temperature was probably in the 90's. In the morning, before it got too hot, I put another coat of epoxy on the switchbox and the support. I then prepped the anchor well for a coat of paint, which meant some sanding and cleaning with denatured alcohol. Our TV's built in VCR wasn't working properly so we couldn't record any of the programs. After lunch, I cleaned the anchor well again, put some blue tape on the parts I didn't want to paint and applied some white enamel. It looked much nicer and will look even better with another coat. Saturday, July 24 is a national holiday here - Simon Bolivar's birthday so most stores are closed but EPA, a large Home Depo type place was open. I had planned to go to get some more paint for the anchor well but found another small can. As it turned out, I didn't get to paint the anchor well again anyway. I did another coat of epoxy on the inside of the switchbox and support in the morning. David and Suzi came over a little after I finished and we just visited with them for a couple of hours so I didn't do too much else in the afternoon except I did finally remove the inner forestay chainplate. It came off relatively easily and there was no sign of rust so the leak must have been very recent. I'm was glad to have found it since it was much easier to fix with the new windlass not installed yet since the bolts for the chainplate are fairly close to where the back of the case is. |