The solution to the first problem was to fiberglass a piece of wood to the hull to mount the vented loop onto. The solution to the second problem was to remove the hose barb from the thru-hull, clean it up, and re-bed them in the new position. We went to the shop. Jim cleaned the two parts to re-bed them, and I cut a piece of wood to glass to the hull.

We went back to DREAM AWAY, and installed the thru-hull and hose barb in its proper orientation. I then put the piece of wood on the hull using the course fiberglass putty. We then put all of the tools, extension cords back on DREAM AWAY, buttoned her up and went back to THUNDER to get a shower, and have dinner. Tomorrow we will get back onto the projects.

On Tuesday morning, April 21st, Jim and I got up, we let Kitty sleep in, and we went to Whataburger to have a quick breakfast and a senior coffee (Free). We then went to DREAM AWAY.

We continued with the installation of the vented loops and moving the Inverter/Charger back to it's original location in the garage. While Jim and I were having breakfast and discussing the actual vented loops, we decided we did not really need the vented loops. We could just loop the hose, and put a brass fitting in the hose as a siphon brake, and run a small hose from the brass fitting to the bilge in case any water came out the siphon brake. We did just that with the hose. I will return the vented loops and get our money back.

We got pretty far along on the vented hose project, but before we completed that project, we had to get the Inverter/Charger moved. The hoses and the wiring for the Inverter/Charger all came up through the work bench and were located in the same place. I was able to find the wires I had cut off when I moved the Inverter/Charger to the location under the main cabin floor. We got the wires spliced back together. We removed the Inverter/Charger and the DC and AC wiring to the Inverter/Charger, and also the temperature sensor and the remote wire. We had to re-route these wires to get them back to the garage and up to the work bench. The Inverter/Charger is going to be installed above the work bench on the bulkhead between the garage and the main cabin.

Just before lunch, I received a call from West Marine saying that the new batteries were in, and the two cooling pumps for the ice maker and refrigerator were also in. Jim and I went to THUNDER for lunch, then to West Marine to pick up the batteries and pumps, and finally to Kemah Hardware to get the needed brass fittings for our loops in the hose.

We got back to the yard and started to work on DREAM AWAY. Before getting right to it, I talked to the yard manager, and made sure the guy came by to fix the dings in the hull. The man from the yard came by, and repaired the dings, and had them all sanded down by the end of the day.

We continued with the move of the Inverter/Charger and the installation of the looped hoses. By the time 1730 rolled around we had the move completed, the hoses installed and the wires ran. We tried to run the Inverter/Charger as an inverter, but it would not work. We then jacked around for some time trying to figure out why the Inverter would not work. We finally got power to the boat and verified the charger worked. Why the Inverter does not work, we do not know. The bad news is we did not check the Inverter operation before we moved the Inverter/Charger, so we are unsure if it was working then.

I will have to check into getting the Inverter/Charger repaired when I get back into the water, but for right now I am pleased the Inverter/Charger is out of a very low lying area in the boat, and back up near the work bench in the garage.

Tomorrow we will start on the two transducers, installation of the Dynaplate, and removal of the old batteries.

The morning of Wednesday, April 22nd, Jim and I went to DREAM AWAY first thing in the morning to get started with the days projects. Since Jim was leaving tomorrow, Thursday, we decided to concentrate on the projects that needed two persons. The vented hose installation was at a point where I could finish it by myself, so we got started on the transducers.

We really had some good luck in that the old transducers came out rather easy, and the new transducers fit the same holes in the hull. The over all length of the new depth transducer was smaller than the old transducer, so we had to make the hull block smaller. At the same time we changed the angle of the block on the hull, because the depth transducer did not point directly down. We took the block and the measurements and went over to the shop. At the shop we shaved some material off of the hull block, and changed the angle to the proper angle. We cut a backing plate for the transducer that was the opposite angle so the transducer would point straight down even though the hull is curved, and the tightening nut would screw down on a flat surface. We also cut out the four required backing plates that will be needed for the installation of the Dynaplate.

We went back to DREAM AWAY, and continued with the transducer installation. The trimming and cutting of the block, and the backing plate for the depth transducer was right on. In the meantime we had sent Kitty to West Marine to purchase some 3M 101 sealant. Because the transducer housings are plastic, we had to find a sealant that would work underwater and also bond to plastic, the 3M 101 sealant fit the bill. Kitty showed up with the sealant, at the time we needed it. We had done dry fits on both transducers, so we were ready. We bedded each housing one at a time into the hull and tightened the nuts on the housings. We discovered one issue with the 3M sealant. It seemed amazingly easy to get it all over the place. It seemed like the remainder of the day we were seeing the sealant where it was not supposed to be.

While Jim spliced the transducers into the wires that were already run to the instruments, I worked on finding a place to install the Dynaplate. After a couple of false starts, I found a place that the Dynaplate fit to the hull, and we had access to inside the boat. Jim finished the transducer splicing, so we started on the Dynaplate.

So as not to guess where to drill the holes in the hull, we brought the Dynaplate inside the boat to the location, and used the actual Dynaplate as the template to drill four 3/8" holes into the hull!! We got the holes drilled, and decided to put the Dynaplate project on hold.

Our friend Robert was coming over to help us take the old AGM batteries off of the boat. Jim and I got down under the main salon floor and started disconnecting the seven 8D AGM batteries. Six batteries for the house, and one for the main engine start battery. BTW, each battery is 165 lbs. We got all of the wires disconnected from the batteries and were ready to start moving the batteries. Robert showed up so we moved the batteries off of the boat one at a time. Jim and I would lift the battery out of the area under the main salon, and move it to the mid cabin. Robert would tie the battery up, and Jim and I would go up on deck. We would lower one end of the spinnaker halyard down to Robert and he would hook on the halyard. Jim would tail, and I would crank on the winch. as soon as the battery would clear the hatch, Robert would come up on deck and guide the battery up and over the life rails. I would go down the side of DREAM AWAY to the ground and guide the battery to the ground. Robert would then join me and untie the battery. We repeated this all seven times.

We then loaded four of the batteries into Jim's van and he and Robert took the batteries over to West Marine for recycling. While they did that, I put all of the lines and parts back into the aft deck box. The violent weather we had this past Saturday blew the temporary cover (tarp) off of the aft deck box, and everything was soaked. We had emptied the aft deck box of all of the lines and items on Monday, and after two days of being out in the bright sunshine, all was dry. Jim and Robert came back and we loaded the last three batteries into Jim's van and they took those over to West Marine.

When Jim returned we got back onto the Dynaplate project. We dry fit the Dynaplate and made sure all of the bolts went through the hull and the backing plates for each of the four mounting bolts. We followed the very specific installation instructions for the Dynaplateand got it installed. We used the 3M 101 sealant again, and we seemed to get it all over.

We were really tired, so Jim went off to get a shower, and I got out a hose and hosed a lot of the dirt and dust off of the boat. Having a boat dry docked in a boat yard is very dirty, and we seemed to be tracking a lot of dirt into DREAM AWAY. When I finished the hose job, I put the hoses away, and went to get a shower myself.

On Thursday, April 23, Jim, Kitty and I went to Whataburger for a quick breakfast. Then Jim and I went back to DREAM AWAY. Jim was leaving to go back to Dallas, but was hanging around until the worst of the Houston traffic subsided.

My first project of the day was to clean out the battery storage area under the main salon. I not only wanted to clean the area, but I wanted to get the surface where the batteries would sit level. This would mean grinding off some fiberglass, and filling in some other spaces. Jim had also come up with an idea that was a more efficient method of holding the batteries in place. As I was starting to look into the area, and Jim and I were talking about the problems of time and cleanliness of grinding fiberglass, I came up with another solution. I was going to be purchasing some fiberglass plate to use for the aft stanchions, and to bed the three new hatches to the deck, I thought I could purchase two pieces of fiberglass 4" wide and 8' long. I would take these two pieces and glass them to the deck of the battery compartment. This would solve the leveling problem in the battery area, and make moving the batteries around much easier. This solution coupled with the new design battery hold downs, would make a great total solution. We ordered all of the fiberglass we needed, including the two pieces for the battery storage area. When I get those pieces glassed in, I will paint the battery storage area. Jim and I also came up with a main house battery buss bar. This will be located in the battery storage area. This will enable all of the connections to the positive of the house battery, but I will only have one positive connection to the battery. Because of the new battery storage area solution, I will not be putting all of the batteries into DREAM AWAY right away. I will put one battery in for the normal DC loads and to also start the main engine. It was time for Jim to leave so we drove over to the shop and unloaded six of the Gel cell 8D batteries from the Suburban. When that was finished, Jim headed out to Dallas, and I went back to DREAM AWAY.

First on the list was finishing the vented hose project. I attached the hoses to the thru-hulls. I then dressed the hoses and all of the cables to and from the Inverter/Charger. When I got that done, I put all of the stuff back into the chemical locker we had to remove to make room to work. I moved the big tool box back into the garage on the work bench, that also had to be removed to complete the project. I have not screwed down the work bench as yet, but will get that tomorrow. When I finished with the tool box, I put a lot of parts and tools back where they belonged.

Now I got started on the rudder post project. I had water leaking into DREAM AWAY around the rudder post seal. The bolts and the sealing mechanism was so badly corroded, I was afraid to attempt any adjustment with DREAM AWAY in the water. The area looked pretty bad, but when I got close to it, I discovered there were just a lot of oxides sticking to the metal parts. I got after it all with a scraper and wire brush, and it cleaned up pretty well. The sealing mechanism came apart very easy. I was able to clean up all of the parts with emery paper and wire brush. I wiped them all down and applied grease all over the parts and fittings. I was then able to do the adjustment on the fitting. I will not know if the adjustment is correct until I get DREAM AWAY back into the water, but now I feel confident about making the adjustment.

The leak from the rudder post had caused quite a mess in the area which is directly under where we sleep. Since we are off of the boat, I decided to clean up the area, and put a couple of coats of paint on the hull and fittings. Another two hours of some really interesting positions, and it was all cleaned up. I applied one coat of paint to most of the area. Since I was not able to remove all of the hoses and other items, I will have to do the painting in two stages.

When I finished the painting, I closed up the boat, and set off three bug bombs. This should help keep any critter from getting to first base on DREAM AWAY. I will set off three more bug bombs tomorrow when I leave DREAM AWAY

First thing on Friday morning, April 24th, Went over to DREAM AWAY first thing and open up the boat. I put the second coat of paint in the after cabin under the bunks. I am not using marine paint, but a high quality Glidden Porch and Floor paint. The marine single part epoxy paint yellows very bad after a couple of years, so I thought I would give the Glidden product a try.

Next project was to replace the zincs. I had to emery paper the propeller shaft to get a good clean area, and installed a doughnut zinc directly on the shaft. I also had to replace two zincs on the lower rudder pintle. The old zincs came off pretty easy, but then I had to clean and sand the pintles so the new zincs would make good contact. I also took out one bolt on each pintle just to make sure of the condition of the bolts. I had replaced all of the pintle bolts and nuts with new stainless steel bolts and nuts during the March 2003 haul out. All of the bolts I removed and checked had no signs of corrosion.

Next I went to the shop after stopping at Kemah Hardware to purchase some hex machine bolts, 5/16 X 1" X 24, fine thread. When I got to the shop I fabricated the house battery plus buss bar. I cut out the Starboard to mount the buss bar. I then drilled and tapped the buss bar for 14 connections. This should cover everything that will be connected directly to the house battery.

I went back to DREAM AWAY, and installed the buss bar. I then attached all of the connections required to run the house battery and to start the main engine.

I moved all of the hoses and other items in the aft cabin under our bunk so I could put a first coat of paint on all the area not previously painted. The good news was, there really was not much area to paint.

It was time to leave DREAM AWAY, so I set off three more bug bombs. Did not see any evidence the three bug bombs that I set off last night have killed any critters. The guys that work in the yard usually have a beer or two aster work on Friday, so before I left the yard, I donated a case of beer to the cause. More a thank you for all the extra help I get from the guys.

Saturday morning, April 25th, I went over to DREAM AWAY and opened up the boat. I applied the second coat of paint in the after cabin under our bunk.

I screwed down the tool box to the work bench I had removed to install the Inverter/Charger and the vented loops. I put away more tools and other items to try and get the boat a little more presentable.

I had received the two circulation pumps from West Marine. With all of the batteries out of the battery storage area, it is very easy to work on the cooling pumps. I was able to plan the pump location. I will be painting the whole battery storage area, so I decided to paint the area where the pumps are located. I removed the water maker lift pump, all the hoses required for the lift pump and the two circulation pumps, and the wiring, and applied one very good coat of paint.

Robert came over to DREAM AWAY, so we were able to lift one of the 8D Gel batteries up to the deck, then down the mid cabin hatch. We then moved the battery into the main cabin, then down into the battery storage area.

Next I wanted Robert to go up the mizzen mast and take off the port wind generator. The face bearing is starting to go bad. This was very disappointing as I had sent the wind generators to the factory to be serviced and rebuilt. The original quote said they would replace the face bearings in each unit, but they did not. Robert went up the mizzen mast, but could not get the wind generator with the wires attached to come up high enough from the mount to disconnect the wires. I had left extra wire in the mount for just this reason, but it seems the wire has fallen down into the mast, and we cannot get the wind generator off. This is not a good situation. I will probably go up the mast a take a look myself, but if we cannot remove the wind generator, I will have to drop the mizzen mast again to fix the wire problem, and to remove the wind generator.

I went down into the battery storage area and connected the new 8D Gel battery to the systems. I started up the DC voltage monitor/regulator to change the battery type and the present capacity, so the electronic monitor/regulator would treat the new battery right. I also turned on the wind generators to keep the single battery charged.

I then cleaned and dried the reefer and freezer lids. I put on new weather stripping on both lids. This should really help with keeping moisture out of the reefer and freezer.

Next I taped the stern of the boat at the water line to straighten out the water line. They guys at the yard have a weird idea of how water lines up on a sail boat. I got the masking tape put on in a reasonably straight line, and then painted the areas not covered with bottom paint. I put on two coats. I also painted the areas around the two transducers Jim and I had put in. I removed the masking tape when finished

On Sunday, April 26, Went over to DREAM AWAY and got right to work. I went into the aft cabin and verified the new paint job was dry. I then put all of the hoses, air vents and other items back where they originated. I then put the bunk all back together and vacuumed and cleaned up the aft cabin.

Next I went to the pump area in the battery storage area. I had decided to move the electrical connections for all three pumps to be on terminal blocks, and above the pump location. This would keep the electrical connections out of any water when you take off or put hoses on the pumps. The bad part is the wire leads from the pumps are not long enough to reach the terminal blocks. I had to extend the wires to the terminal blocks. I moved the original location of the water maker lift pump, then installed the refrigeration and ice maker circulation pumps. I got all of the wiring ran, and the cleaned up and dressed the hoses and wiring so most of everything is not laying on the deck.

I then tested all of the seacocks to make sure they were working, and service them if not. I had been on a regular schedule of around the first of each month, I cycle all of the seacocks to make sure they were working. The maintenance schedule paid off because I did not have to service any of the seacocks.

I then cleaned out a storage area that had all of my electrical wiring in it and put the wires into a storage box that will go into the area vacated my the Inverter/Charger. This will make searching for pieces of wire so much easier.

I put the masking tape again on the stern of the boat following the line I had made yesterday. I again put on two good coats of bottom paint, and put some paint around the two newly installed transducers. I removed the masking tape when finished.

Last but not least was to clean out the refrigerator and the freezer. BTW, there was still ice in the freezer after six days of no running. Since there was some ice, I had a glass of ice water before getting started. Kitty was there to help so we got the shelves out of the refrigerator and cleaned up. The boxes were cleaned and washed down, and then we got them all dried out. We put the lids on and we were ready to go.

Just before leaving I set off three more bug bombs. This should kill most anything that is on the boat, and hopefully keep anything new from making a home.

On Monday, April 27, Went over to DREAM AWAY first thing and opened up. I did a cleanup of all of the bug bomb cans and newspapers left on the floor. Rolled up the foam pads on the after bunk so I can inspect the rudder post after splashing DREAM AWAY. Good friend Alan showed up to help get DREAM AWAY from the yard, to THUNDER, and then back to its home slip. While we were waiting, I tried the Inverter portion of the Inverter/Charger, and it worked just fine. I have no explanation why it did, but I will be keeping a close eye on it in the near future.

The yard personnel showed up with the Travelift, so Alan and I got off of the boat. They picked up DREAM AWAY, and did the final scraping and touch up with the anti-fouling paint. The scraping was done on the very bottom of the keel where it was sitting on blocks. DREAM AWAY was driven over to the haul out slip, and dropped in the water. I checked the new transducers, no leaks. I checked the Dynaplate, no leaks. I then checked the rudder post and no leaks there. Really good news.

Alan and I drove DREAM AWAY over to where THUNDER was docked. I turned DREAM AWAY around, very challenging in the 20 to 25 Kts winds. We then tied up DREAM AWAY next to THUNDER, and proceeded to move all of our belongings from THUNDER to DREAM AWAY. When that was finished, we dropped the lines and drove DREAM AWAY over to its home slip on pier four. I wanted to back DREAM AWAY into its slip, to make working on the dinghy davits much easier, so I did that. It took three attempts but we got it in. Kitty was on the dock throwing lines, Alan was on DREAM AWAY tying down the lines, and I was trying to get DREAM AWAY backed in. It is very difficult to do with a 20 kt wind on your nose, and a vessel that will only back to starboard at slow speeds. Like I said, after three attempts, taking advantage of Mother Nature and gravity, and some luck, we got her in.

We got all of the dock lines on DREAM AWAY and positioned to their proper place. We then got the power cables ran and connected, and the water hose connected. I got DREAM AWAY powered up, then got the refrigeration running. The new circulation pump started without a hitch, and no leaks there. The freezer and reefer are in the process of cooling down. One holding plate is about frozen, now just two more to go.

After lunch, Kitty went back to work, and I started putting things away. Jay, who is doing our survey, showed up, and we went through all of the items he needed to check on the boat, and we discussed all of the upgrades underway. Jay said he would write up the report after today's inspection. but would wait about three weeks to take all of the pictures and a final inspection. We agreed on a May 15th date. By then I hope to have the new battery's installed, the water maker finished, all of the sails and safety items on the boat, and DREAM AWAY looking very sharp and ready to go.

Jay left and then I got back to putting away all of the stuff we had on THUNDER. I also mopped the decks and wiped down all of the surfaces, because of the bug bombs we had set off. Kitty finished putting the things away, and I got all the electronics put back together and working.

With DREAM AWAY back in the water the haul out is finished. Even though finishing the battery installation did not take place while DREAM AWAY was out of the water, I want to finish that project here. Pretty much everything on the list was completed in the week the boat was out of the water. We did not get the wind turbine off. That is covered in the mizzen mast lowering in October of 2009.

Spent time on DREAM AWAY measuring all of the possibilities for the new battery storage method. Got all of the measurements I think are necessary.

I went over to the shop and spent a fair amount of time measuring fiberglass and stainless steel to come up with the new hold downs for the batteries in the battery compartment on DREAM AWAY. The new plan is a good one, but I decided to not do it at this time. It would take a lot of time to make the new pieces of stainless steel, and use a lot of consumables. I decided to go with the old battery hold-downs. They have worked for many years, and hopefully, once I get the new batteries installed, I will not have to worry about it for ten years.