IT'S MORE FUN THAN I CAN STAND!!!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

It is amazing how long it can take to do one little project! There is a spotlight that illuminates the cockpit and the the deck when it is on. A helpful thing when one is working on deck at night or simply when one is moving about the deck in the dark. I know that the light works as the bulb was just replaced and one of the guys at the MYSTIC Shipyard tested it with his own battery. However,(boy, there's a word I am using a lot)the wire to the light has ripped out of the deck connector and had to be replaced. I purchased a water proof connection and went to work. Removing the old deck connector was no big deal, three simple screws and clipped off the wires. This is where the fun begins as the wires from the boat were red & black and the wires coming from the light were brown and blue! Thankfully, the yard guy stated that the blue wire was the negative(attaches to the black) and the brown is the positive. I connected the wires from the mast to the plug and the ones from the boat to the deck connector. That is I did, after cleaning the wires that were corroded. The wires were connected with screw attachments which are rather simple. Then I inserted the deck connection into the deck. Well that was my intent. I had forgotten to measure the hole to see if the deck connector would fit. I assumed that it would and you know what happens when you assume! You know, of course, that it did not. The hole was too small and had to be enlarged. This meant dis-assembling the deck connector. Then I had to go to the aft cabin and remove the ceiling panel and pull the wires out of the hole so that I would not cut them when I opened up the hole. Then back up on deck and bored out the hole to the proper size. Then back into the aft cabin to feed the wires back into the hole. I connected the wires to the deck connector, caulked it and screwed it into the hole. Then down to the nav station and the power panel. On with the power. On with the "Deck Light Switch" and . . . . nada. No light! ARRGH! It took two hours of work for no result! It was only after I got home that I realized that there is a special fuse for part of the power panel (where the Deck Light Switch is located) and I hadn't check to see if it was good. So maybe, it is just a fuse problem . . . I hope, I Hope, I hope! ! ! !!

While I had the ceiling down in the aft cabin, I took a shot at getting the ceiling light to work. The reading lights over the bunks work, as does the deck light, but the ceiling light doesn't. The wiring from the light was connected to power wires with wire nut ties. This is a no-no on a boat so I removed them and connected them properly with crimp connectors. That didn't solve the problem so I went to the next step, was there power in the wires. Out came the multi-meter and I checked the wire. No juice. The proper procedure to locate the problem is to move back along the line until you get to a place(connector, joint, fixture, switch) where there is power so that you can identify the problem and correct it. Sound simple but the wires supplying this light run into a dime-size hole in the overhead and there is no way to trace them. I can understand why it would be simpler to just leave the old wires in place and run another set, but I have had to deal with such an approach on the boat before. I am not sure how to go about the trace but since I have light already in the aft cabin, it isn't an immediate priority.

I got the propane system up and running but without the owner's manual, I am not sure what I am doing or if it is working correctly. I went to the XINTEX website to down load the manual for the system I have and found that it wasn't on the site. I called them and they were amazed that I still had a working system When I asked about the manual, they said that it was too only for inclusion on the website. They said that they would scan it and email it to me, so again I am waiting on someone else to progress.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

I have laid out the first day's course on the laptop. From New London to Morris Cove in New Haven Harbor. Having laid it out, I now have a destination as well as a departure date. It is starting to get very real.