In April we posted a list of projects we had done during our first three months in St. Petersburg and now it is time to capture projects for our second three months. And oh, boy, this was an expensive quarter. We are hoping that the third quarter does not require so many boat bucks.
Here is an outline of work for April, May and June that we can recall:
New Bimini side curtains and zippers for the cockpit enclosure- The Eisen glass on our old side curtains had turned quite orange, and the screen zipper was seized in place, so we worked with someone who has a boat at the marina to replace the two side curtains. She suggested we replace the whole enclosure for a better guarantee that the system would fit properly, but we felt the top portion of the enclosure was fairly new. Instead of a new top, we asked her to repair some of the worn out zipper receivers, which turned out to require replacing the full zipper line. It turns out that the new side panels changed the overall fit of the system, and now not all of our snaps do not fit and the enclosure does not fully adhere to the cockpit coming. Also, it is more difficult to zip up the enclosure, but perhaps things will loosen up over time. We will move along with what we have and it should last us a few more years where at that time we will do the entire enclosure.
Seacock replacement- A short haul was required to replace the seacock used for air conditioning and for making water. About 10 days after the haulout to replace the shaft seal, it was discovered that this valve was broke in the open position, and for safety sake we wanted the valve replaced. After an attempt to fix the valve in the water it was realized that a haul out was going to be required. That made for two haul outs since moving the boat to St. Pete. If we were in Shell Point, this would of required an 8-hour sail to Carrabelle, then be placed on a long waiting list. We are very happy to be here with plenty of nearby services.
New lithium batteries, solar panels and alternator - This is the main reason we moved Utopia over to the The Yacht Rigger slip at the end of April. This job, along with other work, took a solid month to complete. Jimmy outlined these three in his The Power Trifecta post from April 30. But in short, we converted AGM to lithium batteries, we doubled our solar panel capacity to 800 w, and installed a slightly larger alternator, creating a system that will allow us to play out on the water for long periods of time with little worries about consumption.
New whisker pole and track- While at The Yacht Rigger, we purchased a whisker pole and installed a track on the mast for easier deployment of the whisker pole. There is even a video available of our system on the On The Deck Channel. Just fast forward to about 5:15 into the video to see Utopia's new whisker pole set up.
Chaps for dingy-The dinghy now has a new slick set of chaps. These coverings will protect the dinghy pontoons from the tropical sun and perhaps prevent a puncture from mishaps at sketchy docks.
Oil Change - This is the second time changing the oil since purchasing Utopia, with the last one in May 2022. Jimmy did it during a solo weekend on the boat.
Fix Forward Head - The vacuum toilet stopped pumping a few months ago. Since we have two heads on the boat, and we are sitting in a marina, it was easy to just ignore this problem. The maker of the toilet (Lavac) is no longer in business, and it took some searching to find a pump rebuild kit. The aft head, a standard Raritan system, was also in need of a pump rebuild, but was in operating order. After the pump rebuild kit for the Lavac toilet arrived, Jimmy decided to take on this project during the weekend I needed to stay in Tallahassee. He reported to me that it was an absolutely discussing project that ended up with him taking a shower with his clothes on once the project was finished.
Jimmy and I plan to post one more quarterly update before slipping the lines and hope this list is much smaller in October. Although we fully expect there to be new items on it (new stern seatback cushions, making an adjustment in a lazarette door, bolt replacement on back stay, re-pickling water maker, testing out the batteries, etc.).
With our initial departure planned for mid October, that leaves us just over three months to wrap up critical projects. In general, Utopia is ready to go now but some shake downs are needed before going too far.
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