Spencer
11/19/2009, New Bern, NC

The new 20" Edson wheel arrived today, so I got busy installing the X5 wheel autopilot and the new wheel. I was bummed to discover a small piece of metal floating around inside the rim of the new wheel. Edson said that I can send it back and get a new one, but that will have to wait until after this weekend... we need to put our new systems to the test of a short cruise.

I got the autopilot working and did a makeshift calibration by slowing turning the fluxgate compass in my hand, to simulate the boat going around in circles. I then manually updated the compass heading to match that of our ship's compass. I think that it may be picking up some magnetic interference from our keel and may need to be moved up higher... it's under the floor for now - where the old one used to be.

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Spencer
11/18/2009, New Bern, NC

This piece will keep the appliance from falling back, rocking forward and lifting up. It is a piece of aluminum angle that once again has a lot of screws deep into the wood around the unit.

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Spencer
11/18/2009, New Bern, NC

I spent the morning installing braces on the washer/dryer to prepare for our short cruise this weekend and travel beyond in rough weather. I was going to use wood, but Kathleen had the idea of using metal and we found aluminum straps and angles at Lowes. I used a small vice to help with bending the strap to the contour of the woodwork around the washer and lots of deep wood screws into strong wood.

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Spencer
11/17/2009, New Bern, NC

The end result is beautiful!! It was not easy maneuvering around on deck without stepping on wet paint, but I finished in about 5 hours - with plenty of sore muscles.

I still want to do parts of the pilot house roof, cockpit coaming and the cockpit locker covers. I only used one gallon so far, so have plenty of extra.

Our boat has been completely transformed in one day!

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Spencer
11/17/2009, New Bern, NC

I cleaned the decks last night and again early this morning in preparation for the KiwiGrip non-skid. Our decks have looked terrible since I removed the pealing Treadmaster and we couldn't stand it anymore. After cleaning, rinsing and drying, I taped off the areas that I would be painting. It turned out that the hardest part of the job was dealing with the tape... mostly in removing it while the paint is still wet - very messy!

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