Wet wet wet

And we don’t have a stern hatch cover as Darren took it away yesterday to paint.  Instead we have a piece of old timber panel over the opening which has left a large gap which is allowing the warm air to escape from inside Waiouru.  The weather forecast is for strong winds later today and tomorrow so I’ve taken Nicks advice and scrounged around the boatyard in the long grass and brambles for more fire bricks top place on top of the panel.

We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the minimal amount of condensation in the boat.  Each morning one of us goes around with a micro-fibre cloth and drying the bottom of the portholes and the small area of exposed aluminium Houdini frame.  Obviously we are generating the condensation by breathing (I’m alive… I’m alive!) or it’s from the cooking.  The spray foam and double insulation on the portholes and Houdini’s appears to be very effective.  Less than 1000w of generated energy is keeping Waiouru warm.

Yesterday Nick recalibrated the fuel gauges.  The first task was to top up the tanks.  Oh dear….. more money spent!  The Hurricane heater tank took 21 litres and the heater has 38 hours on the meter.  The fuel gauges are calibrated by pumping air into the line with a bicycle pump.  I’d anticipated this and purchased a cheap bike pump from Halfords.  It lasted for one tank but burst apart under pressure when attempting to calibrate the main tank

To calibrate the tank air has to be forced into a thin copper tube which runs down to the base of the tank where there is a sensor.  The fuel gauge is then calibrated manually with a small screwdriver to show the tank is full.  Over the course of a year some air pressure will be lost which will require the process to be repeated.  Looks like we’ll need to look for a stronger bicycle pump!

As we are getting very close to Waiouru being completed I’ve been reading the build specifications with the objective of identifying any outstanding tasks.  One thing I noted was the headlamp is supposed to have a small indicator lamp at the stern which will illuminate when the headlamp is on.  I don’t want to forget to turn off the headlamp and start flattening the batteries.  It would be possible to fit a small LED globe but I’d need to use one of the spare terminals on the stern Empirbus node.  I’d much rather save the spare terminals for some future; yet to be identified requirement.  Then I had this brilliant idea (unusual for me).  I could reprogram the system so the cockpit light came on with the headlamp.  It only took a few keystrokes on the computer and the amended configuration file is now waiting to be uploaded.   

A slight panic mid afternoon when Jan noticed the gutter across the front doors in the cratch was full of water.  Now this gutter empties into the front bilge sump where there is an automatic bilge pump.  If the pump doesn’t automatically empty the water from the sump then it can backup and enter the cabin under the front doors.  The first test was to check the pump actually worked.  This was confirmed by running it via the manual over-ride switch on the bedroom wall.  So the pump worked but the problem might be the float switch.  This was tested by filling the now empty sump from a bucket.  The float switch didn’t work!  Thinking logically; the next step was to access the wiring to the automatic switch to see if it had 12v.  It didn’t!  So the problem was between the terminal to the float switch and the bow Empirbus node.  On looking at the node I could see the digital fuse on one of the circuits had “blown”.  Yes…. it was the active feed to the automatic float switch.  Now if I had been really logical the node would have been the first place I checked.  Actually the failure to clear the “blown” fuse is my fault.  I’d seen it earlier when clearing another fault and hadn’t realised there was more than one fault on the node!  Another lesson learned.

Bit of a delay with tonight’s post whilst waiting for the All Blacks to finish trouncing Wales.  Jan wasn’t too fussed about the result as she considers herself half kiwi and half welsh.