Electrical

• Electrical monitor - Emon II by Ample Power: This is still a very good electrical monitor, in my opinion, but I wish there were a way to recalibrate it easily. When charging the batteries via the engine/alternator, it resets itself to 100 percent after reaching a certain voltage and amperage, even though the batteries are really not full. The result is that the batteries never reach full charge although they appear to. The only remedy, with my setup, is to do a long motorsail or go into a marina and plug into shore power.
• 125 Amp Alternator - S125e by Amptech: After the installation of the new diode bridge in Martinique, this unit works fine and I see up to 80-85 amps when running the engine at 1600 rpm, which is about what I should get.
• AGM 8D House Batteries - Lifeline: I'm still happy with these, particularly since I think they got somewhat abused before I corrected the charging problems. They still seem to hold a charge although not as readily as when they were new.
• TV/VCR - Sharp: This is a small TV/VCR combination unit that worked fine, except it started to just stop working on occasion; for no apparent reason it would either not turn on or just stop. Then it would, after what seemed like a random period, start working again. We brought in for repair in Trinidad but the repairman said (quite honestly) that he wouldn't be able to diagnose the problem, especially since it was working when we brought it in. I suggested that it might be interference from the transmission from the SSB when I did email and he said to try unplugging it when I did that. We're doing that now and it works OK. I guess the 150 watts of transmit power would interfere with it.
• Remote Thermometer - Radio Shack: I like this gadget. It registers current temperature in the cabin on the main unit and also from up to 3 remote sensors. I use one in the refrigerator to make sure that's working OK and one in the forward cabin.
• Cabin Fans - Hella: I installed 8 of these in the boat, replacing a Guest fan that moved more air but was very noisy. These also move a fair amount of air around but are much quieter and draw very little amps.
• Stereo - Sony: This is a car stereo unit installed by the previous owner. It works well and drives both the cabin speakers and cockpit speakers just fine, but there is no place to plug in the laptop so I could listen to the digital music I got over the Internet. I suppose its just too old.

Plumbing

• Watermaker - Little Wonder Modular by Village Marine: I had to wait to write this since I was very POed at the unit/company. I had to buy a new membrane in Trinidad because the unit wouldn't produce acceptable quality water. The WHO (World Health Organization) standard is 500PPM or under and mine wouldn't make anything less than 800ppm. I think this problem goes back to the installation when I disovered the recycle/discharge valve handle pointed backwards, but a friend has the same unit and it also started making poor quality water, and his is pretty new. When I went to have the membrane replaced, I was very glad I brought the entire pressure vessel in since the replacement membrane (that should have been standard sized) I would have bought didn't fit. As I watched the technician replace my old membrane, he took the new one out of the bag and fit it in my unit. It was an inch too long. Fortunately, there was a new Village Marine pressure vessel there also and he took the membrane from that to replace mine. Although the membrane was new, it still only made water at about 300PPM, which the owner of the shop said was about the best I could expect from a low volume pump. Most watermakers with new membranes will make under 200PPM water, but they need a powerful pump to drive them.
• Foot Pump: Its impossible to tell who made this pump since there are no markings. It started leaking the day before we were supposed to leave Trinidad. (It probably leaked for a long time before that.) I tried to dissasemble it but it was put together with screws that have round, slotted nuts inside sleeves on the pump body-almost impossible to remove without a special tool. I tried finding a rebuild kit but could only find the pump itself. I decided to buy a Whale pump instead, even though it was more expensive since I knew I could find rebuild kits for it and I could see it would be easy to take apart.

• Engine - Universal 5444: Still works OK. I take of it and it takes care of me.
• Engine Raw Water Pump - Sherwood: The pump works fine but it's difficult to work on and takes both metric and imperial parts.

• Chainplates: Made of 1/4 inch stainless steel, they're fine, with no corrosion evident. I used the Wichard Stainless Steel Cleaner/Repassivator, which cleaned them nicely.

• Through-hulls/seacocks - Groco: These are the bronze ones I installed in 10/2001 in Trinidad and they work fine. They open/close with no problem and don't leak at all.

• 2-stroke outboard - Yamaha 15 Enduro: I bought this engine in Martinique and after running it for a few months, we're very happy with its performance. The manual is much better than the one I got with the Mariner 8 years ago, and of course, there is power to spare.