April 29th- It was cold when I came over this time. It was barely in the 50's and at night it was in the low 30's. It was perfect for testing out the new Buddy Heater that I would like to use to replace the cabin heater. It heated the cabin from 40 to 60 in an hour on high and then I turned it down to low and it maintained that temp until the bottle froze. Anyway it was a zip up the sleeping bag night.
I added an extra hinge to the nav table so now we can open it without having everything slide off. I then remounted the coaming boards that I had refinished this winter. I used butyl tape to seal up the holes and then caulked the deck edge. I opened up the fuel tank clean out and found that the tank was very clean. I could see right to the bottom and there was only a few specs of black. I then rebedded the middle water tank deck fitting with butyl tape as I think it was leaking into the hanging locker. I serviced 4 of the 5 seacocks. I cleaned them and greased them with Spartan grease. The only one I didn't do was the port side cockpit drain. I may do this one later. I cetoled the inside of the coaming boards with one coat of cetol. I cleaned and serviced the starboard main cockpit winch.
May 19th- Added 12+ gal of diesel which put the level at 5/8. I installed the new motor panel. I ended up putting it back in the same spot as I just couldn't find a better spot. I did however make a completely new panel and moved the oil and water temp gauges to the forward side so hopefully I can see them easier. It has all new wires and connections and the lights on the gauges now work.( LED lights). I cleaned the ground spot for the #1 battery down to bare metal as it was quite rusty and may have been why I have had so much trouble starting the motor with that battery. I am wondering as this is where the bonding system attaches if that needs to grounded to the motor. I made a frame from the old bimini frame that goes off the stern to hold another solar panel. And I mounted a carved dolphin to the boat under the bowsprit.
