Day 387

Today Gena finished up the installation of the inverter and ground fault plugs. In the photo above, the plugs are purposely different colors to indicate house power or shore power. Just for convenience of visitors aboard really. Looks kinda goofy though ha ha! We'll just tell 'em it's white for clean power from our boat (i.e. sun, wind and water) vs. black for dirty power ( coal ) :)

Gena had to re-drill one of the wood covers ( we paid handsomely for! ) because the damned holes weren't aligned the same. The amount of work she did filing etc. I may as well as have made her some from scratch!

This past week we had some spare time at work ( even though we paid for it in the latter half ) so I had some time to make some electronics for the boat I have been wanting to get at for some time. The following links are more technical than here.

The audio switch that brings the back panel of my firewire sound box to the face of the panel is pretty simple. Basically a switch that branches several inputs to the PC and 2 PC outputs to the Ham radio. This is for Wefax, AFSK, Packet and SSTV between the PC and the radio. Also my keyboards musts feed in here and just straight audio in for recording off of whatever. More info on that is in Audio Switch page.

I also started an auto-on powered USB Hub and accessory driver, another thing that just can't be bought. The problem is the hub still draws power with the PC off, so could drain power needlessly for days.

The Antenna Switch I just finished uses RF relays. This is to allow switching of the VHF antenna on the mast to a WxSat Receiver, the ham 2meter, the TV in the galley, or the scanner. It defaults to the VHF as a default, and has a quick button there. I like this toy!

The stereo shown yesterday is at home in it's little picture frame. This frame will partially protect it from bumps in the night.

Below is a holder for Gena's SW/AM/FM Sony radio to sit in. It's a very tight fit so I hope it doesn't pack it in. The 4.5 volts it requires will come from the stereo box. It's a good little radio, well worth the mount.

To the left is the DVD player box finished. The frame had to overlap the vertical, and the end carefully sanded in. I recommend anyone that will be doing the to plan well in advance where the components will be located and build with that in mind. This thing has been a real bugger to do, and took much to much time!

Below is the tambour door in the galley in place with its 4 coats of oil and varnish on. Pretty good match isn't it?

Oils are good for a starting layer under varnish, but take a while to soak in. We have 3 different shades so I can mix to get a certain tint. Then pigmented varnish adds a warmer side to it. Once sanded carefully 2 layers of clear gloss are added. I've been doing everything this way. Seems to be well sealed but only time will tell.

Gena added the exterior style plug for the pressure washer up in the bow. This is in case we want to use and extension cord and haul it up on deck to do the hull/decks etc. The main purpose is for the anchor chain. BTW the big Bruce fits nicely along the sail bag constraint bar in there ( sorry no pic yet ) it just needs some sort of clamp. It's strange how there is no information anywhere we've searched on anchor storage. 110 lbs of steel with pointy edges flopping around inside the boat during a heavy weather scenario seems pretty important to me....

Day 387:
6 hours+shoptime~: Finished wiring 120V stuff forward half of boat, put in stereo, DVD box framed cover, radio mount, doors in galley, coated final on drawers etc