We're looking for the trash fence...

We’ve hinted at bits and pieces of this along the way, but I wanted to write up a more formal review of the changes we made this week while we had the engine out to replace the fuel tank.

Our original battery system was 2 banks of 4 and 2 6Volt batteries that were combined to make two banks of 220Amp Hours and 440 Amp Hours each. This was proving to be a bit limiting. I also suspect our batteries are waning and we’ll replace likely replace them further down the road. However, for now what we’ve done is create on large house bank combining all of these batteries into one 660 Amp Hour bank and we added a second 12V dedicated starting battery.

The new positive post of the new battery is wired directly to the starter and the negative joins the common negative bus in the house bank battery trays (i.e., they are wired together).

We already had a Blue Sea Automatic Charge Relay which combines both banks whenever it sees an adequate input charging current on either bank. For us this means that when the alternator is charging the starting battery it will combine and also charge the House, or when the solar and\or AC Shore Power Charger is charging it the  House it will also top-up the starting battery. This second possibility is called a dual sensing ACR and is somewhat less known about, read the Blue Sea Page on ACRs for more on that.

The battery changes should give us adequate power to not have to run engine for charging as frequently. However our alternator was only 65Amps and it had an internal single-stage regulator.

We upgraded our alternator to a 100amp Leece-Neville 8MR2401UA which was a physical drop-in replacement (same size, bolt pattern etc.) as our smaller 65Amp Leece-Neville. This was the maximum size we can run our engine with a single 1/2” belt.

We also replaced the internal regulator on the new alternator with a Balmar MC-614 three-stage or smart regulator.This regulator senses the voltage of the battery, temperature of the battery and the alternator and adjust the output of the alternator to provide the best charging current given the state of the batteries and the environment conditions.

The process seemed like it was going to be:

1. remove the old alternator form the engine
2. remove the internal regulator from the new alternator and install the conversion kit to allow the alternator to be controlled by the external regulator. There are excellent step-by-step instructions on that here.
3. Bolt the new regulator onto the engine
4. Wire the external regulator to the alternator, Ignition (or a pump driven solenoid which turns the regulator on and off) and its sensors to the battery bank (temperature and voltage) and alternator (temperature)
5. Mount the external regulator

Seems pretty straight-forward and in fact all of that took a few hours. This is where easy goes crazy…. I was doing this over the weekend and all of the pre-tests Balmar says you should run using your voltmeter were not working properly. I spent at least a day tracing wires all over the engine compartment, under the cockpit floor and the lazarette to ensure I was wiring the thing correctly. But despite seeming to be wired correctly, in the end it wasn’t working right and the problem had to do with how much the new alternator and the old alternator differed from each other. The old alternator was case-grounded which means it was grounded through the way it was bolted to the engine. The new alternator was externally grounded which means you need to run a wire from the negative (-) post on the alternator back to the negative (-) on the batteries (our your common ground).

It took about an hour on the phone with Rich from Balmar and his patient troubleshooting guidance (and an emailed picture of my wiring) for him to come to the conclusion about my ground problem with the alternator. We borrowed a jumper cable from the always helpful Kyle Cox at Tarheel Aluminum Fabrication (he made our tank) and we tested our theory… BINGO! Everything was working yaay!!! Phone support, let me restate that. Knowledgeable, technical, skilled phone support is awesome thank you Balmar!

Now our alternator and regulator are working properly!

We're still in Charleston. Still trying to get all systems back online. The main part of the project removing the engine and putting in a new fuel tank are completed. Friday we along with Kyle from Tarheel Aluminum Fabrication lowered the engine back through the companion and set it on its new mounts! Saturday we finished hooking up the engine, new 100amp alternator and external three-stage regulator. This morning we start the engine for the durst tine and it fired right up, but the regulator is not coming on, which means we can't charge the batteries without shore power. the engine is also running a little hot.

I spent most of today working on the regulator with the voltmeter checking how things were hooked up. I won't bore you wight the details on that, but I think it's a problem with the ground and a call to Balmar tomorrow should resolve that.

As for the engine temp, we need to make sure there's no air in the cooling system which seems pretty straightforward.

In addition to all that Dawn has also been working n some teak projects, stripping the cetol from the hand railings in the cabin top and she sanded down the campionway hatch boards and trim. It's going to look amazing when she's done!!!

We are definitely feeling the need to head south, but also seeing that the immediate weather patterns aren't looking great either. When the engine is 100% we'll start looking to pick our window to jump to SF or maybe another intermediary stop like Port Orchard or Eureka.

This morning we motored over to the yard docks so we could start working on removing the engine so they can pull it tomorrow, pull the old tank, make us a new one and then we can put it all back together.

Dawn and I spent the day removing hoses and wires, labeling everything and taking pictures. The idea of helping to remove the engine sounded very daunting to me at first, but now I think its pretty easy. Things have gone well and very few extra surprises yet. All of the bolts on three of the four engine mounts turned very easily. I think the fourth is going to require some special yard magic. The foot at that location is also cracked so a little welding repair will need to be made as well. I’m not really worried about that, this yard is mostly for fishing boats, they seem to do a LOT of welding here.

If we weren’t here then tomorrow would have been our next chance to jump down the coast. It’s looking line the next opportunity won’t be until Tuesday or Wednesday next week so being here isn’t too bad.

I’ll be sure and take pictures of the engine coming out as well as a review of the yard and the people here when it’s all over. I’ll also do a technical write-up on pulling the engine so all you who are going to have to do this yourself someday can get a feel for what’s involved.

<Dawn and I both wrote this post>

After staying in Neah Bay for a few days we were itching to start heading south. Neah Bay isn’t the most hospitable of towns to stay for more than a few days. We were originally going to leave Neah Bay and head for San Francisco, but the weather in Northern California was looking rough. Aaron and Nicole on s/v Bella Star suggested heading down to Newport, OR so we could at least bite off some of the sail down and we thought that was a splendid idea.

We left Neah bay around 4pm in thick fog, light winds and low swell. Knowing that we were going to need it we switched on the radar. Not too shortly after that, in thick fog, we came port to port of a fishing vessel squeaking by within one hundred yards of each other. I believe that we were both equally surprised to see each other as we both veered to starboard to keep clear. Immediately Dawn was screaming it wasn’t on the radar! So we deduced that she was too close in our vicinity when we switched on our radar for it to pick the fishing vessel. Lesson learned! We spent the rest of the time calling out visible vessels to hone in the radar. We hailed Bella Star who was about an hour ahead us on the VHF to see if it was clear after the Straits. We were going to head back to Neah Bay if it was foggy on the coast! They said it was clear to horizon at Cape Flattery so we pressed on.

We rounded Cape Flattery, which was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The view was spectacular with high cliffs and strong imposing coast line. Once we hit our mark around 15 NM offshore we did the big turn left. Dawn marked the occasion by signaling a left hand turn signal just to be safe. We were very excited to finally be free of Puget Sound’s grasp. We headed offshore sailing about 5-7 knots with the wind over the starboard quarter and the swell not quite exactly on the beam, but enough so that every 4-5 minutes we rolled from rail to rail which could have not be more uncomfortable. Have you heard the fisherman’s rule: “The 7^th^ wave of the 7^th^ set”? It’s true… very true. Just as the boat settles down after the first few swells another set is lined up to toss you around. But we pressed on through the night with triple reefed main and furled jib as we had to put in the reefing lines anyway, and being new at the whole offshore thing we decided to play it safe. We setup the Hydrovane and sat back for a long night.

Have we mentioned how much we love the Hydrovane??? If not, we do…we are in love with the Hydrovane. As the night wore on the winds died but we stuck with the sailing. Pea took the first watch to 0200, Dawn the 2nd at 0200-0600 and then Pea from 0600-1000. After morning broke we pretty much swapped turns taking naps and kept an eye out for crab pots and fishing vessels. Oh yeah, did we mention crab pots…yep, they suck. In 30 fathoms of water below the keel we had two close calls!

The second day and night we sailed in light winds making 3-5 knots again with a swell approaching the beam. We seemed to be just outside the fishing areas, and we were hoping to stay well outside until south of the Columbia River where we were planning to jibe in and start to make some distance eastward heading in to Newport. At 0200, the start of Dawn's watch we were well enough past Columbia River so we jibed east and remained so until all the night watches were over.

With the day upon us and many miles to go and very light winds we committed to motoring and made a rhumb line course for Newport about 70NM away. The motoring was pretty easy in increasingly fickle winds and dying swell. The water was beginning to flatten out (thank god) and the swells were more aft. The weather was calm and cloudy and the water took on this thick glassy oily texture. It became difficult to differentiate the horizon as it all looked the same mercury gray color. We took up one of Dawn’s favorite past times and began referencing all of the sea birds that were gracefully skimming along the very edges of each swell. We spotted Black Footed Albatross and Short-Tailed Albatross and several others throughout the evening. Albatross are such beautifully elegant birds with long powerful thin wings and short thick bodies and a nubby long beak.

Around sunset the sky darkened and fog rolled in, but it wasn't so thick you couldn't see things close-by. It was just enough to make the things in the distance lose their depth. So in this blur we were looking for our first mark off the channel entrance to Yaquina Bay. Coastal Explorer showed a Yellow light and our charts showed a Red & White light and Charlie’s Charts (which we love) was calling it yellow! We started to get a little nervous thinking that we missed the mark. Because the night was so calm, Dawn was able to make out the whistle of the buoy! But where the hell is it? Oh, it was right off our port side and guess what, it's WHITE!! In Coastal Explore the light descriptions are turned off by default (now fixed) and while the little navigational buoy icon has a yellow light, the description is correct. Not a huge deal, just caused us to do a fly by before we double checked our navigation and headed in the channel.

Dawn’s anxiety level was building because we had difficulty seeing the green buoys. There was this weird large orange light that seemed to be causing our night vision to get out of wack. Dawn had her eyes peeled with the help of the binoculars and soon realized that the orange glow was a fishing vessel trying to leave the very channel that we were trying to enter! After the fishing boat cleared and veered off to port we were able to see the markers much clearer. At 11pm at night in pitch dark with the lights of Newport behind it the channel looked about 20 feet wide. (We both remarked today that after having seen it in the daylight it's about 50 yards or more wide but yet looked soooo very small at night.) It’s definitely still tricky, as the currents rush through at blinding speed. Dawn kept asking why I wasn’t slowing down, we were doing 7.5kts with the engine at idle! After we went under the Yaquina Bay Bridge, we had to make a very fast turn to starboard right in front of marina breakwater at the green buoy in 7.5 knots of speed into the Port of Newport Marina fuel dock. Patrick did an amazing job at handling that turn under such conditions, even though they were probably close to perfect for the seas and weather were calm. I can’t imagine trying to navigate this at night in anything other than perfect conditions. Once we tied up at the fuel dock, we exchanged a quick hello with Aaron and Nicole from s/v Bella Star who were trying to tell us that we were docked at the fuel dock and not in a slip. We told them we were needed fuel and were going to pass out for night and handle it in the morning. We quickly passed-out in our nice and warm cozy v-berth.

The trip was great, it taught us a lot about our boat and our systems (more on that to come) and about ourselves. We both wore Scopace patches for the entire trip. Pea was fine all day and then at twilight on the first two nights he instantly got nauseous, puked and then was fine for another 24 hours. Dawn was fine and was able to eat and quickly warm up the stews and soups she froze for the trip. We both loved having Sirius XM Satellite radio to keep us company and awake at night.

Deep Playa is on J dock (funny we left J dock behind us at Shilshole) docked next to Bella Star and relaxing in Newport for probably at least 5 days or so before we head down the Oregon Coast. There is a nasty low over Northern California right now and gale force warnings. We liked this short hop and thinking we'll stick with this strategy if the bar conditions allow. Our next stop may be Coos Bay if the weather behaves.

When we were still on the dock at Shilshole we'd get asked all the time "when you going to be done?" And I'd always say, "never!" Well, in that spirit you should know that we're not done yet!

Today I worked on adding six new switches to control some functions of the AIS and power on/off various components of what we call the NavSystem. The new switches will allow us to turn off the transmit portion of our AIS to save power or avoid being tracked by CB. The other switches will allow us to turn off the PC, WiFi Bridge, LAN/USB Hub, and the NMEA 2000 network (instruments). All of these things used to come on or off all at once, now we can more granularly control our power usage, which us very good thing!!

We are relaxing at City Pier in Port Angeles working on projects and waiting Yi go to Neah Bay. No Internet on the dock and still working out ssb/ham kinks so use the AIS tracking link we sent over twitter yesterday for following along info.

We spent today hanging around Port Townsend and waiting to meet up New Found Metals (NFM) to get a new gasket for one of our portholes.

Richard (the owner) was gracious enough to come down to the boat and meet us personally to help replace one of the gaskets which was sticky and hard to open. Cutting out the gasket, cleaning up the frame and glass and putting in the new gasket took about 45 minutes of actual work time I’d estimate. A very simple repair and we were impressed with the personal service.

Richard is the kind of guy who always has a great story to tell and we heard about a slew of products he’s working on and the very cool plant in China to build them. If you order portholes and have the option to pick them up in Port Townsend and meet Richard I highly recommend it. New Found Metals is a company recommend fully!

We left behind our step and some words of encouragement for those who asked how could we do this, the “inscription” reads:

The first step is the hardest to take

s/v Deep Playa 2011

We love this town!

This post is the last from J31 at Shilshole Bay Marina. Next stop TBD!