S/V JonNe's Great Escape: Retirement

October 11, 2013

I just can't believe it is October, and it is almost time for FantasyFest here in Key West!! If you haven't heard of this great adventure in debauchery, Google "Fantasy Fest 2013".

I woke up this morning, realizing again, what a lucky fella I am to be here in retirement with this incredibly beautiful lady!

With my cup of morning coffee, I climbed into the cockpit and looked around JonNe' and love the site of the other boats here in the marina

I started this morning working on the electrical system again. I rerouted all of the connections, by removing them from the battery posts and installing them on separate terminal buss bars. I was excited I had finished them, bu I hadn't installed the covers to the battery connections yet, so that got done today.

We are pretty much self-sufficient, from the standpoint of converting fresh water from salt water, and we are "Green" as we are using both wind and solar power. I decided yesterday to begin testing the systems to determine if they actually were working. In fact, the solar panel is making electricity, but not enough to sustain our usage, so I will be adding another unit probably before we leave. As far as wind power is concerned, the wind generator is DOA! Dead On Arrival!!

Doggone it! We just had this repaired about 10 months ago. If you look in the picture above, of the battery connections, you will see a silver cable running along the top of the picture. This is the grounding line I added today to ground the solar and wind power tower on the aft of JonNe'. I also ended up scraping the corrosion off the connectors, one of which was the wind generator that make up the earth ground. After talking with the folks at www.altestore.com, where I bought both the solar panel and wind generator, it is possible the wind generator may have been the victim of a nearby lightening strike. Not close enough to affect the boat, but enough to kill the electronics in the generator. Now I have to pull it down AGAIN and get it repaired! This will be the second time this has been repaired! I am thinking I am going to go with another unit! Perhaps a D-400.

Have you ever found something on the internet that is so pervasive that you just have to try it?? I have run across several references to a thread penetrant that is even more invasive and much better than WD-40 and a host of other materials. So I thought I would try it. I went out and bought a small spray bottle yesterday at the dollar store, stopped by Home Depot and picked up a quart container of Acetone (which I hate to use), and mixed 50/50 Acetone and Dextron Transmission fluid, which I had left over from my last diesel engine transmission. As I shook the two chemicals, they wouldn't mix, and I am thinking this was a bust! Then globs of something began to materialize in the spray bottle! I said this is "No Good"! But I had bought the stuff, so I sprayed it on the threads of the propane bottle and regulator that were corroded together from our propane grill. Got two wrenches out, and voila', they came apart! pretty easily. It actually worked! Hmmm, maybe the internet has
"Some" things that are worthwhile. Apparently the Acetone and Transmission Fluid mix well enough they penetrate the threads, then the acetone evaporates and the threads get slippery. Hmmm!

Okay, another interesting thing: I know everyone reading this has spent hours looking for something, tearing apart all of the known places that it might be, only to find it the last place you look. Ever wonder what everything you look for is ALWAYS in the last place you look? That is because you FIND it and stop looking!!! LOL!

Anyway that happened again today! I tore the boat apart looking for my little container of Lanocote. This is a product, ideal for boats, and is used when two metals (aluminum and steel) are going to be, let's say, screwed together. Because of the chemical makeup of the two dissimilar metals, they corrode very quickly in the salt air. By putting some lanocote on the threads of whatever you are screwing together, there is a barrier between the materials and they don't corrode. Very Simple! Except when you can't find the stuff!! So an hour and a half looking in every nook and cranny, including every box of tools and materials we have aboard, thinking the "Ghost of Christmas Past" was giddy with retaliation, I finally found it at my feet in a tool bag I had already been in twice today!! I decided at that point it was time for a Yingleung Beer, and I quit working!!