06/10/2016

More pictures of the work being done, Day 4

 Here's Chris progressing on the autopilot, installing shadow drive.

 The batteries arrived early, they were anticipated next week , but the company found so in another location.

 Picture of the shadow drive location.

 Gene started on the new alternators. The universal bracker to mount it was giving him some issues.

Here it is mounted, port side will follow soon.

06/09/2016

Work progresses for each day. I'll drop some pictures in here for you to see......... Day 3

 Had to remove a breaker for the battery charger. Needs to be a 30A size.

 Chris working on the NAV items in the wiring closet.

 Here's the AIS in place under the front cowling.

 Here's the pump for the autopilot. It was placed below the main wiring in the wiring closet.

 
Composite Yacht, they are installing the  Glendinning synchronizer, stopped by for some measurements. I'm having them do some engine work so I can learn a few things. Never learned how to bleed a diesel after fuel filters are changed so this is a chance to do that.

Here's the flybridge with the chartplotter installed along with the autopilot control.

06/08/2016 (cont'd-4)

Here are the tanks out and placed in the parking lot for pickup. You can see the bottom again and what kind of shape they were in.

As the tank mess was being cleaned up progress was being made on the NAV items installation.

Wires being run from the RADAR, down & out the arch.

Chris is pulling RADAR & chartplotter wires.

Here's a picture taken from a boat in residence next door showing the new RADAR.

RADAR & chartplotter in, Wires had to be run from the arch to the upper helm station and then down into the lower helm. AIS mounted. We're on the way to completion. These items will be tied into the NMEA 2000 network which will allow all the NAV items to 'talk' to each other.

06/08/2016 (cont'd-3)

My ever helpful mate (my wife Jane) has never shrunk from a job and since the guys who took out the tanks bill at $100/hr I thought that she could 'volunteer' to clean out the space.

What a job she did!!!

I went out and got some rust-oleum, rubber based paint and sprayed that in to seal the bilge. I ran out of paint and later went and got some more to finish.

06/08/2016 (cont'd-2)

The mess below the tanks told the story, that if we hadn't removed the tanks there would have been real trouble later. Check out what was left after they were removed.

This could have been a real problem in the not too distant future.

Doesn't Jane look happy with her new assignment?!!!

06/08/2016 (cont'd)

There were moving blankets place on the port engine and the tank was laid down, keeping as much off the engine as possible and slid out the port door to the toe rail and onto the dock.

Chris, from Mid-Shore Electronics who are doing the work, I don't think he thought that they'd be doing this type of work. After the first tank was removed then it was time to take out the second one.

You can see some 'diapers' in the lower part of the pictures. The second tank was removed the same way as the first.

06/08/2016

The previous pictures show the opening up of Nepidae to get started on adding parts. 1 pictures shows the centerline fuel tanks that we have never used. I suggest that they be removed as a place to put the house bank. Initially the idea was scrubbed but then when the size and weight of the L16 AGM batteries was considered it was moved forward.

Here's the first of the tanks. A company came by and removed 30G of old fuel first then any blocking was removed, then the tank was lifted up.

Check out that floor under the first tank.

06/07/2016

On June 5th we headed to Cambridge for our 'refit' which isn't really a 'refit' because almost all of the items being added are new to Nepidae.
They include, on the NAV side, RADAR, autopilot, AIS and a new 12" chartplotter, to replace the 7" one that we've been using. I figured with the addition of RADAR the larger screen would enable more 'real estate' to see what is going on around us. On the electrical side there is a house battery bank, new high output alternators and regulators, a centerfielder which will control the output to either the engine bank or the house bank wherever power is needed. Were also adding a galvanic isolator so there won't be stray current around the boat and a boat GFCI so we will be able to hook up to newer dock pedestals while we are traveling.
Below are pictures from the several days they have been working on Nepidae;
Here the guys who will be doing the work are checking out the layout to see what they have to work with.

05/21/2016

Playing a little catch up here.

While on the hard, May 16th, we had a Hard Top put on. This picture shows the top on as the construction takes place.

I think Jarred did a great job and we are really happy with it. We'll see how it performs when we use it.
On May 21st Nepidae was splashed at West End Boat Club after her winter on the hard.

Here are a few pictures of the transport to the water from her spot on the hard. It is always a 'nail bitter' as we are at about full capacity with the lift.

05/01/2016

As you see quite a bit of time has transpired since our last post.

Hopefully this will change in the very near future as I will have more time to keep this up to date.

You might ask, what's the change and the answer would be that I am retiring from my work at the VA and will be on Nepidae on a more full time basis. CAN'T WAIT!!!!

I'll throw some newer pictures up for now and pick up again after my retirement.

Below are pictures from 2015.

The beginning of the boating season, while at West End Boat Club, our winter location, we had some additions. Here is the windlass going on, finally. Down below we also had the charger/inverter installed.

On the swim platform the davits were installed.

It was getting dangerous to lug the OB motor from the sundeck to the dock to get the dinghy ready so this provided a way to have the motor on and waiting to be used.

Splashing at West End Boat Club is always an exciting maneuver.

Notice the new davits in place. We didn't mount the boat and motor until we got to Worton Creek Marina (WCM).

We arrived at WCM and felt right at home.

We'd moved from the Sassafras River due to the long commute to the Bay and the water skiers that would run feet off the dock & rock the boat.

 

We frolicked in the pool......

 

 

Took the dinghy on many excursions.

Here we are on our way to "Belly Button" Beach. 

In June we had a slight detour in our summer on the boat.

It was interrupted by the twins graduation.....

Chadd's wedding, with many games of 'corn hole' (a game brought by Eric, Jessie's boyfriend)

where bean bags filled with corn are tossed at a board with a hole at the top. More corn bags on the board or thru the hole gets points. I usually got most of the points.

 

The old song goes, "On the way to Cape May" but here we are on the way to Still Pond for lunch and a swim.

 

Here we are anchored, can't wait to use the anchor.

 

Along with the family festivities I still had to work but we got as much time on Nepidae as possible. Here everyone (but me as I run the boat) is looking over the bow at the anchor being retrieved with the windlass.

What was interesting, was that when we anchored in Still Pond for lunch and a swim with Dan & Barb, and were retrieving the anchor, it came up holding a truck tire. We had put the anchor right smack dab in the middle of the tire.

Our view when coming back after using the dinghy.

We got more use pout of the dinghy in this season than all of the previous seasons combined. 

We also got in a trip to the Bohemia with the CBC.

In October I purchased some name boards to go on Nepidae.

Jane is trying to decide where they should go.

October found us on our way back to West End Boat Club via the C&D Canal.