If there is one thing we’ve learned in the past few years is that plans are made to be changed. Why or how doesn’t really matter, things just have their own way of working out. Our summer trip to the Maritimes and Newfoundland has been postponed, the refit we wanted to do as been sized down and here we are floating happily on Lake Champlain. After sitting on the hard for two full years, Watermusic is back in the water and we’re spending every free moment we have with her. I knew I had missed her, I just didn’t know how much. Here are a few pictures of the season so far.

Annapolis, April 2013

Saint-Paul-de-l'Ile-aux-Noix, October 2015. Looks familiar?

While installing the radar arch was quite exciting, our biggest achievement over the past week was something much more discrete. After two and half year of unsuccessful troubleshooting: we finally isolated the source of the stray current we were experiencing when the shore power was plugged in. The quest started a few days after we bought Water Music back in April 2013. We were working on the cutlass bearing at the time and kept taking small electrical shocks on the engine shaft.

Since then, I’ve looked everywhere for the loose ground, the cut wire or the bad connexion. While the search allowed me to discover and fix a lot of other issues with the electrical systems, the initial problem never went away. It wasn’t ideal, but as we never plug in at the dock we could live with it. But now, with a failed solar controller and dying batteries, plugging in was not optional anymore. It’s getting cold up here and we needed to get the diesel heater going to complete some of the work. Plus, we like it warm and toasty.

So, we connected the shore power and almost immediately, the breaker on the post started to trip. Another complete review of the 110V system was in order. We were getting some strange reading on the AC panel main switches and attributed them to the galvanic isolator. It had been acting suspiciously for a long time and was now indicating it had an internal failure of some sort. For a second we thought we had the culprit. We removed it and… the readings on the voltmeter were exactly has they were before.

As we were about to give up and tear apart all the switches, we went back to the port lazarette, opened up the AC main circuit breaker and found THE disconnected ground wire. I screwed it back in, moved the box a little lower to give it some slack, tested it and… no more stray current! I didn’t think it was possible to get this excited over a piece of wire, but believe me it is!

The AC circuit breaker box looked so neat and recent, we never suspected it.

See that green wire I'm holding? Probably not, it's so insignificant. But this is it.

Pumpkins are everywhere, leaves are turning a matching orange and snow geese are headed south. While nature is preparing to hibernate, we’re finally getting to work on the boat. M (Water Music’s nickname if you didn’t already know) has patiently waited for us to get her shipshape again and after all these months it was so nice to spend time onboard.

The « to do » list is four pages long: some items small, some items large, some required, some nice-to-have. It will no doubt be extended by all those “while we’re at it” type of projects and the “oh look what I just found” issues. Nonetheless, the preparation for the next trip is started and it’s very exciting.

The radar arch is in place. We now need to transfer the solar panels, reinstall the wind generator, run wires for the spare VHF and GPS antennas and decide what to do with the radar.

The new radar arch installation is already crossed off. Without a mast or a boom to help raise it in place it was serious work, but between the two of us we came up with a few smart ideas and got it done. We’ll put a separate post together about this project when we’re done transferring the equipment.

Replacing the solar charge controller was not on the list, but we started suspecting something was wrong with it last winter. Our suspicions were confirmed when it stopped charging the batteries, only floating them at a whopping 0,1Amp. While we are not looking forward to hauling 500 pounds of batteries out of the port lazarette (that’s on the list), we were actually pleased that the faulty controller decided to act up now, while the tired batteries were still in place. Six months from now, with a brand new house bank in place, it could have caused some costly damage.

Some of the thru hulls refused to cooperate, they had to be taken down forcefully.

Another project that will deserve its own post on the blog is the replacement of the thru hulls. As of last Thursday, they are all removed (eleven in total). We’ll install the new ones in the spring when the temperature is more appropriate to curing epoxy resin.

Smaller task are not always the least stressful. When an engine is in prolonged storage, it is good practice to run it once in a while to lubricate the cylinders and prevent internal corrosion. The day was cold, the engine hadn’t run in 16 months and the batteries were low; odds were not on our side for a smooth start up. We were expecting a lot of huffing and puffing from the diesel engine and avoided thinking about the finicky Fischer Panda genset altogether. So, we got a few gallons of -100°F antifreeze to feed the water intake, turned the key, held our breath and voilà: M’s diesel engine was purring like a kitten (a large one that is) with absolutely no hesitation and no nasty cloud of smoke. Even the generator got going without a fuss. We suspect M was trying to make it clear she wanted to get back in the water and go somewhere.

That’s when we told her about our plan for the next trip. We had to warn her though: there would be no bikinis and no white sandy beaches this time around, only thermal underwear and deep fjords. If we can’t make it to Scotland or Norway just yet, Newfoundland will do just fine.

Michel discovered a family of frogs living under the dinghy, he got quite a concert from the panicked amphibians. We are happy to report that they are all accounted for and comfortably back under the inflatable for the winter.

This morning, Michel got a message from a friend who is about to embark on a long journey to Australia with his family. He also owns an Oceanis 393 and was asking about our anchor. This quick question got me looking for pictures on the blog, only to realize that I had never actually completed that post…

Putting together the first video is taking somewhat longer than I first expected; partially due to a lack of time from my part and mostly due to the age of my Macbook. It’s giving me all it’s got, but it does take longer than it should, which in turns aggravates the first problem: the time available to put it all together. So, until I get around to completing a full video, here’s a teaser. I’m not one to present incomplete stuff, but Michel has been begging me to upload it, so here it is!

Cette nuit verra le solstice d’hiver et dans quelques heures, les jours commenceront à rallonger. Le mercure, lui, continuera sa descente. Heureusement, le froid c’est comme le vélo ça ne s’oublie pas et on s’y habitue rapidement! Les journées plus courtes sont l’occasion idéale pour commencer à éditer les centaines de vidéos et les milliers de photos que nous avons rapportées de voyage. Nous espérons bien assembler quelques épisodes présentant notre descente vers les Bahamas et les partager ici bientôt.