Charleston Project Update
- Jimmy Lee
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
May 23 to May 29
After picking up Sondra from the Appalachian Trail and celebrating a belated anniversary in Asheville, NC, we are about to set off again. The plan is to leave St. John's Yacht Harbor on May 31st and head off shore from Charleston to the Cape Fear Inlet in North Carolina. As we begin our summer cruise, we find it timely to review our boat projects, which are mostly completed.
Boat Projects
Radar
The radar (Raymarine Quantum 2) is back and installed on Utopia. During our Bahamas cruise, it stopped working and provided no radar return. Fortunately, it was under warranty, and Raymarine repaired and returned it. The issue was a faulty array, which was fixed within a couple of weeks and shipped to our contractor.
The contractor reinstalled the radar and hardwired the data cable instead of using Wi-Fi. I believed this wi-fi setup was unreliable due to the distance from the radar to the chartplotter so now with a direct hard wire the signal should be more resilient. The radar is working great so far.
Autopilot
The new autopilot is installed and operational. As we discussed in previous weeks, our old autopilot was functional but outdated, with a control panel that had become unreadable. Additionally, it couldn't integrate with the new chartplotter I installed a few years ago. We've upgraded to the latest Raymarine system, retaining parts of the old autopilot for potential repairs. Earlier this week, we went out with the installer to commission the new autopilot. This process should have been as simple as spinning the boat in circles to ensure the system could steer the boat and that the compass was properly calibrated. However, during our calibration cruise, we encountered issues with calibrating the compass. After a quick call to Raymarine, they suggested updating the software for the controller. We followed their instructions, but this completely bricked the controller, rendering it useless and requiring it to be sent back to Raymarine. It's ironic that the first Raymarine representative advised us to update the software, while the second one, after the update had bricked the controller, mentioned that we shouldn't have updated it due to a known issue. Get it together, Raymarine!
Fortunately the contractor has an extra controller at the shop so hopefully we will have the new one installed and calibrated on Friday so we can depart on Saturday June 1. Stay tuned in next week's post to see if we actually leave.
Instrumentation
Our old depth, wind and speed system also needed an upgrade, so we had that upgraded to the latest technology. We upgraded the instruments panels and the transducers. We ended up not installing the new depth and speed transducers since this would require a haulout of the boat. We will do this the next time we take Utopia out of the water. The old transducers still work so we still have the data. We also have another wind transducer but since I changed that out 2 years ago, we just kept the new one until the old one gives up. Those things seem to have a life span of about 4 years so I imagine I will be changing it out at some point.
Air conditioner
The air conditioner installation when off without a hitch and the contractor did almost the entire installation in one day. The old air conditioner was functioning but rusting out at an alarming rate and was on borrowed time (and over 15 years old). We thought it would be a suitable time to change it out since we were in a marina for an extended period. In was in the mid-90s in Charleston last week and the AC worked great. I might still need to tweak where the temperature sensor is, but I can do that under way.
Water Maker
I completed the pump installation, and it appears to be working well. Since I cannot make water within this marina I went ahead and pickled the system (i.e. make it stable for storage) until we need to make water again. I expect we will keep it this way until we leave Chesapeake Bay since the water quality there is not the greatest and we should have access to free water along the way. I will give an update when we “unpickle” the system.
Other Projects
I had a diver clean the bottom a few days ago and change out the zincs for the prop shaft and the Refrigerator. These are little pieces of zinc you attach to the bottom of your boat so the metal you do not want to rust is protected. The zinc pieces are considered a “sacrificial Anode” that corrodes instead of the other metals on the boat.
Other small projects were replacing a few blocks (i.e. pulleys) for the sails and some wood staining.
Contractor Shoutout
Just a shout out to Tidal Marine Electronics for doing the work. They did a great and timely job, and it is obvious that they know what they are doing regarding electronic installation and troubleshooting. Utopia’s system is much tidier and working on the boat in the future in regard to wiring will be much easier.
Marina Shoutout
The St. Johns Yacht Harbor has been a great stop for us. Although we did not have easy access to downtown Charleston, the location and price was fine for our needs, such as providing easy access for our contractors to do their work. For a 30-day stay, the price was considerably lower than the downtown Charleston area. There is a courtesy car here that was very convenient as long as we only needed it for two hours. For longer jaunts, we rented a car. If you needed an Uber or Lyft, getting a pick up at the marina was a bit pricy (I needed to pick up a rental when Sondra was on the trail, so the courtesy car arrangement would not work.) Staff at the marina are all very nice and friendly, the docks are long enough for Utopia and are floating. There is a nice laundry room ($6 per load), a pool and awesome showers as well. The nearest restaurant (a great pizza spot) and grocery store are about 1.5 miles away; we walked to this shopping center a few times during our stay.
Summer Cruising Plans
So that’s it for the projects. Next week we will start blogging again on our travels to the north. Right now, the plans are to Cruise into Chesapeake Bay in June and then make our way up to Long Island Sound area through July and August. We hope to have some cruising friends join us in the next few weeks on their boat so we might not be traveling solo for long.
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I hope you make a stop at our place on your way up the Chesapeake! You have our boat card and you can anchor right in front of our house!
Working on a boat in exotic locations?