Nothing earth shattering has happened lately but we are getting the boat ready for departure. Slowly but surely we are knocking things off the project list. There is only one large project and that is receiving the utmost procrastination, so most of the time is consumed with little things. I have been cleaning, polishing, sanding, varnishing, painting, and inspecting for hidden problems.

We removed the wind generator some time ago because, although it does produce plenty of power, I suspect there is a problem with it. Over the short time we have used it the generator has started a low rpm vibration accompanied by some erratic amp spikes. Well, I finally got around to contacting the manufacturer only to find out they are no longer in business. Fortunately, the company that bought them out is fully supportive of the “legacy” generators. For a nominal fee they will inspect and bench test our wind generator and let us know if it needs to be repaired. Sometime this week I will send that off and post the results when we get them. For owners of AIR X wind generators made by Southwest Windpower, the new company is Primus Wind Power www.primuswindpower.com and their phone number is 303 242 5820.

One of the things that brings me great joy is working deep in the cockpit lockers. While I was recently buried in one of those lockers, I happened to find a hidden and long festering problem with our “new” generator. While cleaning and inspecting around the back of the generator, I found a nice mushroom of sea salt-induced corrosion where the exhaust elbow bolts to the heat exchanger. There is less than 200 hours on the generator so I suspect it’s been slowly leaking for most of that time. Earlier, we noticed a leak downstream from there but tell tale signs led me to believe it was coming from a weld in the muffler inlet tube. I was planning to replace the muffler but that may not be the problem. The exhaust elbow gasket is probably gone but I will disassemble everything and figure it out. We’ll most likely replace the muffler anyway. I will also grab a picture next time I’m in there.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it before but we got the boat surveyed prior to launching last month. A survey, for non-boaters, is an in-depth inspection by a certified marine surveyor to determine the condition and current value of a vessel (and they are expensive). There were several reasons we wanted a new survey – the boat hadn’t been surveyed since 2007; we just dumped tens of thousands of dollars into our boat during the refit; and we were shopping for new insurance (can’t get insurance on old boats without a survey). The surveyor was very professional, knowledgeable and took his time. Although he did find a few problems that needed correcting, overall our vessel rating was “BRISTOL.” There is no higher rating that can be assigned. We were also very happy with the post-refit dollar value he assigned.

With the few problems found during the survey corrected, I decided to shop around for insurance. Out of brand loyalty we stayed with our previous insurer when bought our current boat. Over the past few years, our insurance premium has more than doubled – actually it has tripled now that I look at it. We are responsible people, we take care of our boat, we have never filed an insurance claim, and our insurance company would only insure for about half of market value for our boat. If we were to have a total loss, there might be enough money to buy a plastic tub, a broom handle and a bed sheet as a replacement. Well, what a shock it was when the insurance quotes started coming in. We got four quotes, all at the surveyed value, with very reasonable deductibles but zero deductible for lighting strikes, fire and total loss. So heaven forbid we ever have a total loss there will be no deductible! They also included generous agreed values for dinghy and motor with very low deductibles, huge cruising areas, and named tropical storm coverage albeit with larger deductible. I could go on and on. The least attractive quote we received was infinitely better that our current insurer and all were hundreds less! They ranged $470 to $800 less per year for double the coverage. In the end we went with Pantaenius America Insurance which also happened to be the most expensive. They are a highly-rated company and we know of several boats that have had excellent claims service with them. It was the closest thing to a “cake and eat it too” type of policy and the premium savings almost pays for the survey in the first year. The covered cruising area is most of the Atlantic Ocean from Canada to south of Trinidad and west to Panama! I never thought insurance would be exciting but we’re excited to have better coverage for less money.

I really haven’t taken any pictures of mundane things like…cleaning the boat, so here is a shot of the wind generator and my new dinghy tiller handle. I have been shopping around for a tiller extension handle for our dinghy motor and a decent one goes for about $40, which is crazy. I decided to build my own, so after wandering through the plumbing aisle at Lowe’s I came up with what you see under the wind generator…for less than $10. That handle slides over the outboard motor tiller so I can control the throttle from a more forward position in the dinghy, like when we are trying to get up on plane! …it’s the little things!

So both of us are working, building up the cruising kitty, and getting the boat ready to depart in just a few short months. We are more excited than ever! I have modified the boat steering so that we can only head south and east after November!!!

A little verbose but there it is!