It’s fun and interesting learning about the new boat. There are many small things I would have done differently, if I had known to ask about them. But, they’re so minor that it’s tough to worry about them. For example, the “courtesy lights” are the small LEDs at foot level all around the exterior of the boat. These can only be turned on and off all together from a single breaker on the main electrical panel. I’d have preferred to control them by zones (e.g. cockpit, bow, flybridge) using wall switches. But, at this point it’s not something I care enough about to change. Some stuff I am changing – the inverter/charger control is in a weird spot so I’m moving it up next to the solar charge controller panel. I suspect I’m going to change the layout of the helm electronics at some point, but without cruising for a while it’s hard to tell what I might want.
So far, we’ve pulled the cabinet out and we have the new anchor aboard. The other day, I flushed the fresh water system and tested all of the pumps – along with the hot water heater. It takes about 30 minutes to fill the tank from empty using dock water. I also programmed the stereo. I’ve spent hours crawling around opening every hatch and identifying every piece of equipment.
There’s always weird stuff. The fresh water tank gauge reads 1/4 full when it’s empty (our last boat was like this) and for the life of me I can’t figure out which fuel tank the generator pulls from. All of this is normal boat stuff, but it’s tough to tell what I should fix now (as it will irritate me if I don’t) and what I should just get used to.
As much fun as it is monkeying around with everything, we really want to take our first shakedown cruise. Most of the work is gated behind hydronic installation, which will start on Mon, 6-Jul and last for a few weeks. This will require pulling everything apart, so there’s no point in starting some other projects. We’re hoping to take our first cruise the last week of July, but it’s too early to tell.
We also have power, now. Though, the solar panels are putting out 20 amps for a good portion of the day, so it wasn’t super critical. Dave rigged up a 30/120 – to – 50/240 smart plug adaptor cable, which will be helpful for the majority of slips in the region that only have 30-amp. That allowed me to power up the water maker and water heater, which won’t run off the inverter.
