Low Pressure tubing installed

The Low pressure plumbing is done with the exception of the brine dump.  Plan on running that up to a sink drain.

In the pics none of the tubing is tied down yet.

I hung the membranes on the ceiling in the ER.  Just have to watch your head when entering or existing the ER.

Waiting on my high pressure hoses to get here.  We also have a scheduled haul out at the end of March for annual maintenance and new davit system install.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Membranes installed

So I was a little concerned with the placement of the RO membranes. It says in big letters, operating temps from 32f to 120f.  My engine room get hot.  So looked all over the boat to mount these tubes. I found a few places but it would mean running high pressure lines 20 feet or more and drilling holes in the bulkhead.  Something I wasn't too thrilled about.  A friend suggested I take a laser temperature tool and actually measure the heat before I place them in the back of the boat.

This morning I ran the engines at 1000rpms for 1.5 hours. Engine room was heated up nicely. I took a laser temp tool with me. The front of the ER was cooler (70f) that the rear (92).

When I shut everything down and let it sit for about 45 minutes, I took some more readings. The front had warmed up to 82f and the rear around 100f. I am still a little concerned about the temps during the summer, but I will keep an eye on it. I just have to learn to duck when entering the ER. Time to read ( they sent me a thumb drive with all the instructions. I took it down and had it printed) and then off to the plumbing

The membranes tubes mounted in engine room (blue tubes)

My "printed" installation manual.

Water Maker Install Begins

I am lucky in that I have some room in my engine room.  When I relocated the battery chargers to the port side it left a nice wall to mount the control panel and twin filters.  I mounted the other filter on the A/C shelve.  The big high pressure pump and low pressure pump fit nicely in front of the STBD engine next to the fwd A/C unit.  I still need to find a home for the membranes.

So now the plumbing and electrical.

Control panel, twin filters and pre-filter on the right just above the blue A/C

High Pressure pump (green) with low pressure pump (black) with cooling fan.

Battery Chargers Relocated

The battery chargers are now relocated. Man that was a tight spot. Those that do their own work understand you spend more time running down extra parts than you do in the actual install. The system seems to be working correctly and now on to the water maker.

Primary and secondary charger

Making a wiring harness

Done.......

ASD 2017 Prepreations-Water maker

Well the water maker from RO Water arrived today. I will post the process here.

I went to the engine room to start scouting a place to put it. I will be installing it on the STBD side, but before I can do that, I have to relocate the battery chargers to the Port side. There is already a board on that side to mount them. I purchased another Xantrex 40 amp and a remote panel to tie the 2 chargers together. Yes the wiring will be different than you see in the picture. What you see is an emergency fix last summer. 

The membranes will be mounted on the engine room ceiling. This cuts down the length of high pressure lines. The water maker's control panel and filters will be mounted where the battery chargers are currently located. I will tie into the thru hull in the bottom picture. I will also make a manifold and tie that into the salt water wash down.  Once that is installed, I can feed salt or fresh water to the wash down spigots.

The Water Maker has arrived!

First thing is to relocate the battery chargers. (black box and grey box lower left with yellow plugs)

The thru-hull.  Thing with white tag.

The white board in the back is where the chargers are going to be relocated.

Final Thoughts and Numbers

We have been at the winter base for a weeks now.  The rain has started and Kay and I are feeling ho-hum.  It is hard to describe how we feel.  I know we are ready to go again.  We have our "fix it" list and starting to build our list for the 2017 Seattle Boat show. We went from moving every few days to stop.

We have learned a lot on the maiden trip to the inside passage.  When we started we were scared to death to anchor.  Now we prefer it.  It still takes us 15 minutes to raise the anchor because of our chain locker causes the chain to pyramid and has to be knocked over every 40 feet.  Along with anchoring we discovered how to side tie.  Between ASD, Pairadice and Endless Tymes we could side tie very quickly.

We discovered that a 30 amp battery charger was way too little to charge 2 house banks.  Chargers are very expensive in Canada.  Well EVERYTHING is expensive in Canada.

Taking waves/swells on the beam really sucks!  I learned that lowering the trim tabs on ASD does dampen some of the roll. We also found that slowing to 6-7 kts and only traveling 40 miles makes the trip a little more enjoyable.  We are not zoom zooming by everything.  Its ok to shut off the engines and drift while watching whales.

Kay learned how to make sourdough bread from scratch!  Thank Chris for teaching her.

Preparations was key to a successful day.  We learned to stay put if the weather was questionable. Because of this we didn't enter into running during bad weather. Its ok to sit still for a week if needed. Fix your boat before you leave home base.  There are those who mocked me as I was anal in fixing stuff.

Be willing to being flexible. Don't be afraid to talk to folks about your experiences as they will share theirs with you and you can learn.  The rapids were not that scary so long as you prepared.

On our shopping list for next year is a new davit and dinghy with a water maker.

NUMBERS :

Total Days: 116
Total Distance: 3299 Miles
Total Engine Hrs: 376.2
Total Fuel (U.S. Gal): 1998.4
Total Fuel Cost (USD): 5826.5
Average price per gallon (USD) $2.49
Average speed (mph): 9.3
Average fuel burn: 5.3
Total Cost of Moorage: $2667.59

Until Next year.....

Chapter 33 Neah Bay to Home Dock

Neah Bay to Home Dock

We left at 5 AM before sun rise. I had Kay on the bow to help guide me out of the bay.  By the time we reached Cape Flattery it was daylight.  We made the turn SSW and we had 4 foot swells hitting us on the stbd been.  After about 2 hours we turned south and we then had following seas.  Then it happened.  ORCAS!!!!  We finally saw a pod od killer whales even if it was for a short time.  Kay was so happy.

This route was recommended to us by the Vickie Lynn.  Instead of 33 miles off shore when we were cruising north, this course was just about 15 miles off shore.  We came across 7 crab traps and they were derelicts, meaning they broke loose from where they were placed and are just floating. This can be dangerous as you props can such them up and tear apart your running gear. The weather was agreeable. As we got closer to the Columbia River the wind picked up from the NW and wind waves started to build. When we crossed the bar it was on a flood tide. We turns to the port and we immediately started to feel the wind waves on the port beam.

Kay and I were discussing the greatest point of the voyage north.  We tossed around a few ideas as we passed the north jetty and the waters calmed.  The 50 yards off the bow a humpback whale breached the water, waving its tail as it dove under the surface.  A whale inside the Columbia river!  WOW!! This was a fantastic sign as if the whale was saying" Thanks for coming, come back again soon!  This was the BEST thing to happened.

As we past Astoria, we decided to push for winter camp.  30 minutes before we hit Fisher Slough it turned dark.  As we motored up the slough I was trying to remember where our dock was.  Kay was out from and she asked " Do you know where we are?"  I responded "of course I do!" She said " Then why are you passing our dock?"  mmmmm  I had to turn around.  We docked up, hooked up electric and water and we were done.

It took us 12hours to go from Neah Bay to the Columbia River Bar and another 3 hours to reach our dock.  15 hours total from Neah Bay to our Dock. That cost us 326 gallons of fuel.......


We have been at the winter base for a weeks now.  The rain has started and Kay and I are feeling ho-hum.  It is hard to describe how we feel.  I know we are ready to go again.  We have our "fix it" list and starting to build our list for the 2017 Seattle Boat show. We went from moving every few days to stop.

We have learned a lot on the maiden trip to the inside passage.  When we started we were scared to death to anchor.  Now we prefer it.  It still takes us 15 minutes to raise the anchor because of our chain locker causes the chain to pyramid and has to be knocked over every 40 feet.  Along with anchoring we discovered how to side tie.  Between ASD, Pairadice and Endless Tymes we could side tie very quickly.

We discovered that a 30 amp battery charger was way too little to charge 2 house banks.  Chargers are very expensive in Canada.  Well EVERYTHING is expensive in Canada.

Taking waves/swells on the beam really sucks!  I learned that lowering the trim tabs on ASD does dampen some of the roll. We also found that slowing to 6-7 kts and only traveling 40 miles makes the trip a little more enjoyable.  We are not zoom zooming by everything.  Its ok to shut off the engines and drift while watching whales.

Kay learned how to make sourdough bread from scratch!  Thank Chris for teaching her.

Preparations was key to a successful day.  We learned to stay put if the weather was questionable. Because of this we didn't enter into running during bad weather. Its ok to sit still for a week if needed. Fix your boat before you leave home base.  There are those who mocked me as I was anal in fixing stuff.

Be willing to being flexible. Don't be afraid to talk to folks about your experiences as they will share theirs with you and you can learn.  The rapids were not that scary so long as you prepared.

On our shopping list for next year is a new davit and dinghy with a water maker.

NUMBERS :

Total Days: 116
Total Distance: 3299 Miles
Total Engine Hrs: 376.2
Total Fuel (U.S. Gal): 1998.4
Total Fuel Cost (USD): 5826.5
Average price per gallon (USD) $2.49
Average speed (mph): 9.3
Average fuel burn: 5.3
Total Cost of Moorage: $2667.59

Until Next year.....