Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Daytona - At the Bethune anchorage and running wires

All in a row, along the way to Bethune
The Bethune anchorage is placed just right for us, halfway between Titusville and St Augustine. The anchorage has a dinghy dock convenient for Hoolie relief and we're able to anchor right off the dock in 9 ft MLW.  We left Titusville around 8:30 and arrived at 2:30.

Our anchorage, right off the free dinghy dock
After anchoring I pulled everything out of the aft cabin in preparation of running wires. I bought a new VHF but now I have to connect the remote mic with the new VHF. Naturally the new mic is not compatible with the old wires. As a rule of thumb, whenever you buy something new requiring running wires, the time spent setting up the new whatever consists of 10% connecting and 90% running wires. On a boat space is at a premium and all openings in bulkheads are as small as possible for a new boat launching. There is no allowance for new equipment.

Sunset over Daytona
The mic mounts on the binnacle and so requires a circuitous routing through small openings. I tried for two hours to use the ones provided with no luck. Tomorrow I'll just drill new holes, I think. In the course of routing wires I found one of my three 4D's were bad and needs replacement. Our lead acid type batteries seem to last about three years before expiring. I heard people say their batteries last seven years but we use ours 9 months of the year which is equivalent to quite few summer sails.

On Wednesday we'll go north again and probably settle in at St Augustine for several days. There's a front coming through with lots of rain, if that's the forecast, we'll stay at a dock there.

3 comments:

Janice Roehr said...

We had to replace our VHF while cruising last summer. I have pictures of David crawling into small spaces, things pulled out of lockers, and the quarter berth, the wheel off the pedestal etc. It's a tough job, and made even tougher as we get older. When I read this post I just had to say, "Been there, done that." That looks like a very peaceful anchorage. Hope you get the radio hooked up and running without too many bruises and aching muscles.

Anonymous said...

Bob--

I'm impressed that you manage to update your Log every day regardless of where you end up. For us, getting away from the "Puter" save for weather up-dates is one thing I enjoy while cruising. Our friends/family can keep track of us via our SPOT Tracks.

In re: your new VHF, can you not use the old wiring as "messenger lines" for the new? In any case, when you do run the new wires (if you have not already) think about adding a thin messenger line to the new wiring that can be tied up and left aside until some future date when it might be needed. We have used that strategy to good advantage as the newer electronics seem to have a relatively limited life span, needing replacement at ever shorter intervals.

Cheers,

Scott'n Kitt
s/v HyLyte

Bob423 said...

Janice, the main cabin is a complete mess! When I discovered the burnt battery even more stuff came out. Eventually it will all be put back together.

Scott's Kitt, I just got in the habit of writing a blog, it averages about 15 minutes a day to do. The kids and grandkids like reading it so I continue. Using the old wiring as a messenger sounds good but I would like to keep the end connectors as is. They won't just pull through, I'll have to drill some new holes I think. I've used the old wiring where I installed the end connectors myself, like coax or electrical wiring.