Winter Project Wrap-up, Post 26-05

Jimmy Lee
Feb 1
5 min read

Updated: Feb 6

Well, we are set and ready to shove off to points south. I imagine our next post we will be moving again so it will back to the normal traveling posts. We truly are ready to depart Daytona so I will go over the actual work we got done during our time sitting still.

If you want to see the post from where I explained the projects before we did them you can go here.

Boat Projects

In November I did a post on projects we intend to accomplish during our time in Daytona. I want to summarize that work and share if we actually got it done and if any other projects raised its head.

Diesel Engine

The diesel was the big one and we finished all the work in Mid-January. Below is a bullet list of the items:

New Heat exchanger
New Thermostat
New Starter
New raw water pump (salt water)
New Oil cooler
Service all fuel injectors
New Thermostat
New Hoses for the work
New Alternator belt
Old coolant was flushed out and new coolant was put in the engine

Engine work (New heat exchanger in center)

All the work went well, and we did a shake-down cruise in the first part of January. There were some very slight leaks of coolant that was quickly solved by the mechanic. Having said that a few additional items raised its head during this process:

Blower Fan-Something that probably had not been working properly before the project started was the blower fan that pulls hot air out of the engine room. This was not working at all when we were doing some of the testing of the engine, so I went ahead and ordered and installed a new blower. It is working fine now.

Temperature Sensor-After the work was done our engine temperature was not showing on the gauge in the cockpit. We knew the new coolant system was working fine since we had an IR thermometer that could be pointed at the engine to check the temperature, so we suspected that temperature sensors were no longer working. We ordered the new sensors and installed them with little fan fair. Now it appears the gauge is working properly.

As a side note we used all Yanmar parts where possible.

Blower Installation and temperature sensor work

Outboard Engine

We had the dinghy outboard engine serviced and took it on a test drive mid-January after getting some fresh gas. It is running fantastically. Not sure why, but it got up on plane quicker than before the work.

Hatch Screens

This was expected to be the most labor-intensive part of the projects, but it turned out to be not bad at all. I removed the wood trim out around the old ones, took down the old screens and the new ones installed in less than a day. The time-consuming part was that the wood trim had wooden bungs that had to be removed so I could get at the screws. Once had the new screens installed, and the wood trim in place, the final, and time consuming step of covering the screws took place. This required having to glue wood bungs over each screw, cutting and sanding them down until they were flush with the trim. After that I had to sand some more and put on five coats of varnish over a few days. This was not difficult but did take some time over a few days. Overall, it was a successful project.

Installing the hatch screens

General Maintenance

Some general maintenance that I have done is changing the primary (Racor) and secondary fuel filters and changing the engine oil and filter. While I was at it, I went ahead and changed the transmission oil. Also, while the engine was disassembled, we changed the alternator belt.

One last item I have not done yet is changing our drinking water filters and filters in the water maker. I will change the drinking water filters right before we leave and then the water maker filters right before we make water for the first time. Since we will leave the marina will a full water tank, we should not have to make water for 10 days or so.

LED Lighting

I finished as much of the LED project that I intend to do for now. I have a little more material for some lighting at the navigation table, but I am holding off on doing that for now.

Deep Cleaning of Boat (Inside and Out)

This is always an ongoing project that we have been working on during the last few months. We have culled and reorganized some of our lockers to make a bit more space.

Patching Tears in Enclosure

This was a pretty straight forward job. Sondra cleaned windows well and simply used clear tape used for mailing packages. It seems to be holding up and hopefully it will hold up until we get to Guatemala.

Reattach Brow to Galley Port light

I purchased the required adhesive for the brow and installed this quickly. Now we can open up the gally portlight in the rain.

Outboard Mount

We installed the new dinghy engine mount, and it was just large enough to hold our outboard. I am not sure about the longevity of this item, but it was at a very reasonable price.

Toilet Seat

New seat installed and functioning as expected. The most difficult part of this whole job was uninstalling the old bracket. I ended up having to use a multi-tool to saw it off.

Miscellaneous

As expected, there were other projects that popped up during our time in Daytona. Here are a few extra tasks we did:

Ordered and installed a new mattress topper and cover to fit on our master berth.
Trimed tale tells (ribbon on sails that indicate how the wind is flowing over the sail). They were so frayd they kept getting hung up on stuff.
Fresh water pump stopped working. I took it apart and rebuilt the motor. It works ok now.
Our spinnaker block went for a swim, so I had to buy a new one and install it.
I went up the mast to inspect all the rigging to make sure everything looked good for our overnight passage.
Got a new handheld VHF and set that up.
Sondra installed a new halyard for radar reflector.
Sondra spent many hours beefing up our first aid and ships medical kit.
Installed our boom break for downwind sailing.
New outboard motor lock.
Sondra spent a lot of time sewing outdoor miscellaneous canvas pieces.
Purchased and installed new charts for the Western Caribbean on our chart plotter.
Cut and installed new AC filters.
Pickled water maker.
Rewired galley fan.
Currently trying to figure out why our freezer has quit cooling three days before departure... May need to fix enroute or at Key West.

Utopia Caliber Labels

Sondra spent a few days installing the new labeling starting with the two on the combing. The new letters are slightly taller and thinner than the original lettering, but they look great. The four on the hull were a little more challenging because they had to be done from the dinghy. Trying to carefully line up the new lettering in place on a moving dinghy was a bit of a challenge. Hopefully, any crookedness or the visibility of the old letters will not be apparent from afar.