Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea

Dropped in the Mermaid 12000 BTU AC\Heat unit oops - 2012

The space is ready now for the Mermaid Marine Air 12000 BTU AC\Heat unit. Debbie and I went to the storage space and got it.

Debbie labeled the wires running across the space for the Mermaid Marine Air HVAC unit. These wires weed to be moved.

Major plumbing work done for Mermaid 12000 BTU HVAC unit - 2012

2012 Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA
We did some major, time consuming plumbing work some in preparation for the Mermaid Marine Air 12000 BTU AC\Heat unit.

1. The first order of business was to remove the EXTREME™ Smart Sensor™ 4.0 Fresh Water Pump 12 VDC..

It is going to need some hacking, but it should work.

Debbie picked up a plastic electrical box at Home Depot for a cover, protection for the back of our refer thermostats.

Debbie got some more fiber glassing done on the refer lids. In-fact I think all are now glassed except for the back big freezer one. Once she gets them all glassed, they can be painted.

SSB antenna back stay clamp sized right

You know what they say, “Third time is a back stay clamp” or something like that. Debbie got the size (#4 split bolt) that fit the back stay this time from Home Depot and this clamp is for the attaching the antenna wire to the back stay on top of where the isolator is.

Now we need to figure out how to get Debbie up to that spot on the back stay? Look like a climbing gear situation :)

Securing refer (Frigoboat) wiring etc - 2012

The device shown automatically switches the refer from 12 volts to 110v if shore power is connected ot our Honda EU2000i is connected and running.

We spent the after work (day job) working on the wiring. We secured all the wiring from\to the refer (Frigoboat) and the thermostats. We also secured the tubing from the keel cooler to the refer.

Air Breeze wind generator working! - 2012

We did some testing to be sure the Air Breeze wind generator (WG) was actually working.

Florescent light bulb 12" to LED replacement - working

The LED replacement on this light looks good. It is the one bulb florescent light between the hanging lockers on the Islander Freeport B plan.

For this conversion we used the "Revolution T5-12 Replacement LED bulb".

It is bright and I think brighter than the Florescent. However I am not sure about two of these in the salon double Florescent light fixtures. They may be just too bright.

If we added just one then they may look a bit funny being lop sided.

Let’s see how the ordered LED strips work out for the salon fixtures and do some tests.

For this particular Florescent light fixture in this place it is great. We need light here and this get used a lot. It is not used for mood lighting or reading.

Aside from the broken shade we are very pleased so far.

Picked up two beach bikes off Crag’s List

6\6\2012 San Diego, CA

These are the two beach bikes we picked up over the last week off Crag’s List. Shelter Island is a touristy place and also has:

Hotels
A fishing pier
Big play ground
Day picnic areas with a nice view of the bay
Boat launch ramp
Humphrey's concerts
RV parking and restaurants
A dead end
Speed limit is 25 MPH
Did I say lost tourists!

So in the coming summer months moving around on the island is impossibly slow in a car.

To resolve this and add some fun to the island we picked up a couple used beach cruisers.

The only criteria, one needed to have a basket. This will be the parts bike :) for running to the chandlery or sub shop for goodies etc.

We oiled them and put on new handle bar grips. We put air in the tires and adjusted the handle bars and seats but that’s about it. Now to ride!

AKA Parts bike!

This bike has a seven speed shiftier that you just shift as you ride, no back peddling or other nonsense to be done. I still need to add the struts to the front wheel for the basket. The previous owner never did put them on but gave them to us. A back pack works too but a basket is nice.

Woks great.

Our first ride will be to the Farmers Market this coming Sunday.

More Garmin autopilot design and install

In Marina Cortez in San Diego Harbor Island 6\06\2012

Rocco came buy and we designed the bracket for the quadrant.

One end will connect to where the stop is now. The stop will re-connect on the bracket.

The other end will be connected where the quadrant connects to the rudder.

Also he decided the height for the Garmin type A drive unit and now Jim can start the fiberglass work.

I dropped the wiring for the stern anchor windlass and wind generator for the autopilot work.

Also I removed the scupper hose from the cockpit scupper for the autopilot work.

Florescent light bulb 12" to LED replacement - 2012

June 2012 Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA

The florescent light and new LED bulb in package.

Debbie at the helm.

It was a nice cloudy day and it was cool out. We had a bumpy sea but it doe not really show well in the video. We were doing a steady 6.2 to 7.2 knots and the winds were 12-15 knots. Did a lot of pinching but it was a south westerly wind which we do really see a lot of in the afternoon here.

The sails and boat performed very well. The boat was most sea kindly and the new sails worked well.

Nice cloudy day.

Pam at the helm.

Our guests were Pam and Rodger from Sacramento, and originally from Oregon.

Some shots of our new sails, the wind generator was "Off".

The was the Schooner "California" out sailing some by the harbor entrance with us.

Rodger at the helm.

Debbie at the helm.

Pam at the helm again

"Rocco The Rigger" was not able to make it by to help us with the Out haul so we jury rigged it for the days sail. It worked fine although we could not adjust it. We want to add a new sheave and a track with ball bearing adjustable block.

JC-42-FL-T Fluorescent tube upgrade twin pack - ordered

Just ordered some LED replacement lights for our two bulb florescent salon fixtures. We ordered one set of two LED strips for one light. If we like these then we can order up some for all 5 or the 4 fixtures we have left to convert.

JC-42-FL-T FLUORESCENT TUBE UPGRADE TWIN-PACK

jclampstand.com

Ordered ducking etc for the Mermaid 5200 BTU AC\Heat unit

In Marina Cortez in San Diego Harbor Island 6\04\2012

The Mermaid 5200 AC\Heat just got some parts ordered for it. These will enable us to make some good progress on installing it.

We ordered the parts from marinediscounters.com as they had great tech support on these.

We ordered two of these, one that fits directly on the fan housing of the AC and one that will take three hoses.

The one off the AC unit will go to the aft hanging locker at the top for a grate and then to the forward hanging looker for a grill, along the way there will be another Y that goes to the head where we will install a white grill.

White grill for the head. It will go under the teak drawers in the fiberglass.

We ordered one of these teak grill 4X4 for the aft hanging locker where the dorad hose comes down.

We also ordered 10 feet of 4 inch hose to start with.

Add a few more miscellaneous items and that's it for now. We will probably need more hose and another grill for the top of the forward hanging locker. We are just not sure what grill we want for that hanging locker yet.

ICOM 802 SSB automatic antenna tuner wire to back stay

Debbie went to Home Depot and picked up two of these clamps for the back stay to ICOM 802 SSB automatic antenna tuner wire. Both different sizes but still too small. Another trip is in order.

This clamps the antenna wire from the antenna tuner to the back stay.

Debbie varnished cabinet over bed trim

Debbie put the final coats of varnish on the cabinet trim so we could finally remove the blue tape. It is inspiring to see the nice gloss trim. It makes you want to jump in and do a bunch of varnishing. Not going to happen though until we can knock out a couple more big projects before October 29^th the sail away day!.

Cockpit grate back and forth

We got the cockpit grate back down for the Saturday sail. Now we will need to move it onto the coach roof for storing while we do some autopilot work :)

50-foot Kettenburg, non skid removed - replacing again - 2012

2012 Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA

We walked over and took some pictures of John’s 50-foot Kettenburg sloop. The wooden boat he is restoring.

Supplies for the companion way screen project

Debbie picked up some screen form Home Depot and some zippers and some Sunbrella remnant fabric from Keystone Brothers for the companion way screen project. We had discussed black as a possible fabric color and I now like the idea more after seeing the fabric for some reason. White was the other choice or the bimini fabric.