Boat projects update

For those of you who are looking for more pictures of our journey through the islands, Linda has been vacationing in Wisconsin. You’ll have to put up with a blog post about boat maintenance.
I haven’t posted in several months now, so there’s been routine maintenance: oil changes for both the main engine and generator while we were in St Martin, where I had easy and free disposal of the used oil at Budget Marine; and the other monthly things, like cleaning strainers, topping off battery water, etc. The biggest unplanned expense was the loss of a snap shackle that attaches the dinghy to the davit when we haul it up. The quick-acting snap shackle was attached with a regular shackle to the block (pulley), and both the regular shackle and snap shackle were there one morning when we dropped the dinghy into the water, not there in the evening when we went to pull it out of the water. A search of the ocean bottom in the vicinity was fruitless, so the chandlery got another $50 out of me courtesy of Neptune.

The last few months have been hard on remotes. The two big remotes for the stereo quit working. Cleaning up the contacts and changing batteries confirmed juice to the circuit board, but no effect on the stereo. Even though we still have 3 more (don’t ask me why the boat came with 5 remotes for the stereo), the big one(s) had a nice holster near the companionway that made them more convenient. The remote transmitter for the wireless temperature gage quit also, leaving us with an inside temperature readout only. I guess that’s not too bad for a $10 purchase from the US two years ago. Actually, that transmitting module was the fastest eater of AAA batteries onboard, and never worked well with rechargables, so it is not a terrible loss.

New reading lamps in the salon

June has been an opportunity to get some bigger projects out of the way, as Troubadour has been in Port Louis Marina, with access to shore power for the first time in a while. Since I didn’t need it to charge batteries and run the refrigeration, the generator got a major servicing with new fuel injectors, fuel filter and fuel pump. Access to power for tools made repairing a soft spot in the deck much easier. New reading lamps in the salon look very nice, as does a refurbishment of the instrument panel at the navigation station. Recaulking in a few areas, a new portlight gasket to stop a leak, and a few dozen other items off the list have kept me busy during the month. I’m looking forward to Linda’s return in a few days!