2019: Movement at the Station

So, let's start with 2019

The posts to follow cover an extensive period, 2019 to 2023.  Essentially, after a fun time at Deltaville in 2019, there has been little boating activity to report.  Of course, in 2020 – 2021 (due to Covid) we had to stay home in Oz.  And be very good indeed.  

Then 2023 became the year of "will we-won't we" as we chopped and changed between taking WJ3 home to Aus or staying on the East Coast, US.  We decided to stay, though changing course by adding a cruise to Trinidad for old times sake, down through the Caribbean, instead!   

Overheating Engine.

When leaving Norfolk (to meet friends - perfect timing yet again!) the engine overheated.  We crept back to the anchorage and, as quoted from our sailing blog:  “the Cap’n put to work on finding the culprit.   After our Cap’n Resolute crawled all over the engine, cleaned sea creatures from water filters and took a dip in less-than-appealing river waters (to check drains), off we set, yet again.  Only to watch the temperature gauge rise steadily again.  Oh dear, back to the anchorage and time to consult those (many) manuals.  By the time we found the culprits – two not-so-tight hose clips allowing seawater to leak into the bilge when the engine revs were raised as we powered forward.”  Sometimes it's just the simple things!

2109 General

In 2019 we did little sailing and generally remained in Jackson Creek, Deltaville until friends from Oz joined us and we went travelling around the Chesapeake and land exploring.  It was a great opportunity to tackle some burning issues, principally electrical, that had dogged our return voyage from Europe the previous (two) years.

Ongoing Engine Electrical Charging Challenges 

I was still not happy with the charging regime and my work on the smart regulator the previous year still did not provide for reliable charging when running the engine.  As the smart regulator was now working correctly (I thought) I turned against the alternator and replaced it with a new one, a Balmar Series 6, 100 amp hour (virtually same as the old one).  I was going to have the old one tested but circumstances did not allow so I just went ahead and, if the old one was actually serviceable, then I would have a spare which is no bad thing.  (See 2023).

See my entries for 2023 for a pretty detailed analysis of my ongoing electrical dramas but with some pretty good outcomes. 

Photos to follow....eventually