Summer Cruise Day 5 Hunkered Down

We had a real heavy downpour and some thunder during the night but the strong winds have not arrived yet thankfully.  Today its drizzly and dull instead.

A damp gloomy morning

Today is what I call a round to it day.  It's when I catch up on all those little jobs that get left whilst you cruise.  First job was to check the aft deck drains.  These regularly block up with crud if not cleaned out resulting in the engine room flooding.  As I opened the deck hatch to clean them I noticed the hinges were starting to seize up and were screeching as the hatch was opened.

After cleaning out the channels and drains I attempted to remove the hatch.  The design of the hinges means I should be able to slide the hatch off them.  After an hour of prizing and pulling I manage to get it off the hinges without breaking them.  Our hinges are essentially a tube welded to the door or hatch and another to the boat.  A Brass pin with centre collar is inserted into one tube and the door of hatch slid onto the other end.

One of the hinges.  You can just see the collar of the brass pin in the middle

  I then cleaned the pins and holes with an emery cloth then put some copper coat grease in them.  The hatch is now free and moves easily.  I did this 3 years ago on our side doors and to date they move just as freely as when I greased them.  At work copper coat grease was known to be on nuts over thirty years.  A tap with a hammer to break the paint and loosen them they could be spun off by hand!

Next was the inverter.  After the recent firmware upgrade I noticed that occasionally the charge rate would peak 38 amps.  Ideal max charge rate for our batteries is 30 amps so using the config program and USB interface I set the max value down to 30 amps.  I'm also glad to say the colour controller is working perfectly too.

It's now 4pm as I type this blog and the strong wind has finally arrived.  AmyJo is rocking gently in the wind which is now blowing a real hooly but we seem to be quite sheltered here.  Hopefully the wind should abate tomorrow enough so we can resume our cruise.

Stay safe out there everyone and we hope all is well with you while the storm passes.