The Maiden Voyage

Last weekend was a 3-Day weekend so I took Algún Día out for the first time since buying her. Leaving the slip was a little hairy but I brought her back in without bumping into anything. We motored around the harbor and toasted another beautiful day in Puerto Rico. It was great to do something on the boat besides work.



The Capitial building in Old San Juan, and a pic of some work boats.



Here's a real "fixer-upper." Bet you could buy it cheap.

Boat Project #576: Fuel Cans

Those fuel cans don't look very secure tied to the lifelines like that. I'll have to come up with something better than that.


I'll just bolt a board to the side....



...And presto we have a secure place to store extra fuel.

Up In The Bow

The docking lines on the front were looking a little frayed, so I decided to clean them up. "Whip it, whip it good!" Sorry, that's a little ropeworking joke there. When you wrap the end of a rope to keep it from fraying it's called whipping.


Now everything looks alot better. I also made a new "snubber" for the anchor chain. That's the red line underneath the docking line on the right. Almost looks ship-shape, don't it?


The Anchor on the bow has seen better days. Yet another thing I'll have to replace one day.

New shower sump

Here is the old sump pump and drainage pan. When you take a shower it pumps the drainage water off. As you can see, it hasn't been replaced in quite a while. Yuck!





















Here I am installing a new pump and water sensor, using the old pan. I wired it together for automatic sensing.




















Here is the new shower sump, connected to the exhaust hose and wired up. The pan is wedged up underneath the shower drain. Hope it works!

LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!!

We got the lights and electricity working. By "we" I mean the electrician checked out my work and made a couple of minor adjustments. He told me to change two wires in the main shorepower breaker and then we flipped the switch and what-ya-know it worked. I felt pretty proud when the electrician said he approved of all my work, minus a couple of bad connections.






I'd been working on the electrical system for two months, and this guy spends about an hour on my boat and suddenly everything works. Here's a picture after he just touched my stereo and it started working, go figure. You'll notice that the electrial panels haven't been put back in place yet. I still haven't finished wiring everything yet. It never ends!!

New water system

Before I put in a water heater I had to draw it out.















Here's what it looks like under the sink.
It may look crazy but now my boat has hot water.

A note from the Author...

Some people noticed that I hadn't made a new post in quite a while. It seems my camera went AWOL a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to take any pictures lately. But the work has continued every weekend, and although it hasn't been documented there are other 'moments' for me to cherish. For example, I will always remember the day I reconnected everything to the engine. What a day that was!

My camera showed back up yesterday (containing a few extra pictures I don't remember taking) and now I can get on with the blog. Thanks for checking in!

Home Interiors

I got all the boat's cushions reupholstered. It looks alot better than before.
This is the Main Salon, looking forward.

















The main settee with the table lowered.
Adding an extra cushion makes it into a double-size bed.

















The "Love Seat." Raising the back makes it into a bunk-bed.



















The "navigation station" which is just the nautical term for desk.

The front-view of the engine. That coolant-hose has a kink in it.

























Let's replace it...



















That looks alot better.

Let's Fire It Up...

There sure were alot of loose wires around the engine...




















I cleared out the useless wires and re-routed all the necessary ones. Here is the new negative bus I installed (on the right) and new wires going to the voltage regulator on the left. The regulator looks like the original one that came with the boat (30 years ago) and might need to be replaced.


















New wire/connectors for the alternator...



















This may not look like much but it's a very important milestone in this whole process. I hooked all the wires up to the engine, crossed my fingers....and it started on the first try! With a water-cooled engine, it is very important that you see water coming out with the exhaust. That means that your engine is working correctly and won't burn up.