OK Per the previous blog about the fresh water tanks we got them home and found the leak. Upon closer investigation there is a crack in the weld, but it actually looks like the initial weld was not very good. So now I’m trying to find a welder who can weld stainless steel. This is still TBD as of this blog writing. I’ll find one and soon. **Note ** we found a local welder and are hopeful to pick up the repaired Tank on Monday…
Also check out the photos of the space where the tanks use to be. All cleaned up now and ready for paint. The angle iron piece that held the steering gear has been de-rusted (is this a word?) and coated with epoxy and is ready for a re-install once the tanks are back in their home.
After stuff removed…
Port Tank location
Port tank location (2)
Starboard tank location
Another project completed was installing new fans in the pilot house. Amazingly this was actually an easy job. This help make up the difficulties with the water tank removal. Now we have some cooling in the pilothouse on the hot summer days without a breeze. Yes it does happen…
Fan- Port side
Fan – Starboard side
Next for this blog you can see in the photo with the plastic bag, the new stern LED navigation light that will be installed next trip to the boat. I’ll try and get some photos of the actual install, if I remember before it is completed.
New LED stern light
Speaking of LED’s this is next to the last non-LED illumination source on Autumn Dream. Remaining lights to be replaces are the port and starboard navigation lights. For my non-boating friends the navigation lights I am talking about are the red and green and white lights you see on boats underway after dark. These colored lights are not because they look pretty but they tell other boaters which direction you are traveling. If you see a green light you know that you are looking at the right side of the boat. And you should not be on a collision course. If you see a red and green light you know that the boat is coming directly at you! This is not good scenario. Change course now.
Additionally we have replaced all the internal filament light bulbs. I think there is one remaining and I don’t use it enough to worry about replacing that one or two. Why you ask, have we replaced all the filament bulbs. Well it all comes down to battery usage. We don’t have a generator on this boat. So we charge batteries with two solar panels and off the engine generator when we are running the boat. LED’s use very little energy so we don’t draw down batteries as quickly. We do have refrigeration and this is the biggest energy hog on the boat. So anything we can do to minimize the energy consumption the better. So LED’s go a long way here! Next up…… Painting the Water Tank area!
PLUS: Beth made a sunbrella cover for the anchor Windlass… another new present for Autumn Dream. There is an inner sleeve with a cord lock to hold the cover in place, and an outer cover to protect it from the elements. You can also see that Kevin added some protective metal where the chain rubs…
