We're still working on getting the wind generator installed. Monday was run more wires and make connections to the main controller unit. The installation manual says it can be done in four hours. It's a British product so that may be British time. We've been at this since Sunday.
We had a visit from Ted and Judy from Newport. Really nice to see them again. They had stopped in to pick up our old wire rigging. They are going to recycle it into new life lines for their sailboat in Newport. They had asked us to save it for them before we left Newport back in July. Not a problem since we figured we'd be back there in late August. Since that fell apart and now we don't figure we will be there till next August they decided to drive up and pick it up. We had a nice chat about the Summer and how they are progressing on their boat. I got them all loaded up and off they went. They'd hoped to drive all the way back to Newport that night. A LONG trip for one day.
Yesterday was drill and thread more wires day. I drilled the hole in the deck for the wire from the DuoGen. It is always a stressful time for me drilling holes in our boat when the main object when working on a boat is to keep the water out. Now here I am making a hole in what was a nice water tight area of the deck. We had thought and planned and talked to the local electricians about what to do and how to do it. I would be using a special fitting that screws down to the deck with a rubber gland. We planned to drill the hole making sure I went into a cabinet inside the aft cabin. We were trying to avoid having exposed wires trailing down the wall. Tracy stayed inside as I drilled the hole. We talked to each other via two way radio. We measured and remeasured and then took a small bit and made a small test hole just to make sure we were in the right area. We got it right the first time! Out came the BIG bit and the main drilling was done. The wire was fed through the hole into the cabin and the fitting was attached. The fitting comes in two pieces. One screws to the deck with a rubber gland under it. I added some silicone just to make sure it didn't leak. The second piece has to have a hole drilled through a large thick rubber gland that the wire passes through and then screws to the first piece. I added more silicone between the two pieces and screwed it down. All done--at least with the deck portion.
Now we had to get it through the cabinets and down into the bilge so we can run it forward in the boat. We attached the wires to the cabinet with special clasps so they wouldn't move or shift. The wires from the generator had to be spliced to the wires that we were running through the boat. I joined them with crimp on fittings and then used a heat shrink tube to seal them both. I had to stagger the splices to they wouldn't have any chance to touch. Once that was done, I covered both splices with one large piece of heat shrink tube just in case.
We planned and planned and measured and drilled and drilled and drilled all trying to get the wires down, down, down. Through one cabinet into the second cabinet and down it went. We had to lift up the mattress so I could squeeze(boat yoga) into the bilge area to try and find the best way to tread the wires all the while trying to keep the mattress up and off my back and not drop the flashlights into the bilge(did that twice). Unfortunately, the boat builders installed insulation between the base of the bottom cabinet and the final horizontal board in the bilge. There is a 5 inch space between the two boards. I drilled down into the space and then up into the space all the while having the mattress pressing down on me while pretty much upside down. I stuck a piece of stiff wire up through the hole to see if I could get through the two holes. The wire got hung up on God only knows what in the space and once in, it would not come out. So as a last resort, I took a chance and stuck the wire through the top hole and got lucky hitting the bottom hole through the insulation on my first try. LUCKY!!! We pulled the wires through and quit as it was already after 5pm and I was soaked in sweat. I was dripping more than a bad faucet. YUCK!!!
As you can imagine, I was off to the showers. I was a mess of sawdust, fiberglass and sweat. Real manly!!?
We're glad that portion is done as the rest should be relatively easy. At least we hope so. All that is left is thread and attach the remaining wires and install the fuses and it should work just fine. Keep your fingers crossed!!
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