May 11, 2014 - Kiket Island (Mother's Day)

Well, it's been over a month since we last went out.  Work is crazy busy now.  Plus we are doing a bunch of projects around the house and on the boat.

I just had the exhaust risers repaired, and new insulation blankets made for both engines.  One engine had a water leak in the exhaust riser, and the other side had been repaired at the same place.  The one with the leak was dripping salt water down onto our fresh water pump that pressurizes the water for the sinks and one toilet.  I had both risers rebuilt and they should be good for another 10-15 years.  I also rebuilt the sea water pump for the air conditioning system when the water seal disintegrated, leaking large amounts of sea water into the bilge.   With the pump repaired the air conditioning system is coming online again.  Right now I have two of the 4 air conditioning unit functioning properly, the other two are still causing problems.

We got away from the dock around 4:30 Saturday afternoon.  It's been a rainy week, but the the weather on Saturday steadily improved throughout the day.  When we left the sun was starting to break through the clouds and the temperature was rising.  It is a short hop over to Kiket Island but it gives me a chance to test out systems that I've been working on.  Everything was fine on the way over.  We set the anchor in about 15' of water and settled in for a nice sunny evening on the boat.

A Blue Heron looking for dinner.

We get a little too close and he takes flight.

Off to anther fishing hole, I guess.

Another Blue Heron in search of fish.

 We hung out on the flybridge for a while, but then a light breeze kicked up and it was just a bit chilly so we headed back inside.

Kevin up on the flybridge.  Warm enough for a t-shirt.

Cindy enjoying a warm afternoon on the boat.

We played a few games on Saturday night and then the kids watched Toy Story 2 on DVD.  Kathy and I discussed boat trip plans for the this summer.  It looks like we are not going to have very many trips for the next few months.  We have a lot of activities going on, and a lot of projects to wrap up.  That doesn't leave much time for boating, unfortunately.

Sitting down to play a game in the salon.

We had a leisurely Sunday morning (Mother's Day) and pulled the anchor around 10:15AM so we could get back home to our long project list.  On the way back I did some testing with the alternators to see how they would handle the somewhat depleted house battery bank.  With one engine running we were getting around 140 amps of charge.  With both motors we were getting 288 amps!  That is a LOT, and will greatly improve battery performance and life, and also mean that our batteries will be fully topped off in just a few hours of motoring.  That project is a success!  I made a list of things I need to now work on.  Our radar acted up, there was no AIS data making it to the chartplotter.  The rubber hose that the anchor chain passes through fell apart and jammed the chain this morning.  Oh well, it's a boat!  Things happen.

It was great to be back out on the water again......