After returning from the Annapolis Sailboat show in early October our focus has been to get the boat ready for winter.  The big project has been installing a reverse cycle ac/heating unit from Cruise Air.   This works just like a heat pump only it uses the outside water to heat and cool the boat.

I’m working with Butch Rasmussen of Shiver Me Timbers Boat Works on this installation. By working with Butch I mean he gives me advice and I do the work.  It takes Butch around 40 hours to install an ac unit from scratch.  I’m at 40 hours with another 20 hours to go if I’m lucky.

In order to make the unit functional I have 3 more projects, install a thru hull for the discharge water from the unit, install a return air vent and attach power to the switch.   Cosmetically I’ve got to build a cover for the back of the control panel and install a cover for the main duct in the cabin.

This is the unit out of the box.  It is self contained and only requires hooking up the power, fresh water and discharge water along with the duct work.   The fresh water supply required a strainer and a pump that is not self priming which means the hose attaching to the pump must have a positive tilt so the hose will not contain any air bubbles.  Air bubbles will keep the pump from working properly. Each project listed was a full days work.

This is the unit when it was first placed in its storage place.  I spent my time working on this unit on my knees leaning over the edge of the storage unit.  At the end of the day my chest is killing me from leaning against the edge of the storage unit.

This is the main duct.  It is 7″ inside diameter which means it’s 8″ wide.  I’ll be spending a lot of time building a cover for this duct. Fortunately I did the duct work on Saturday so I had football on all day.

Other work we’ve done includes finishing up replacing all of the ports/windows, installing a water filter on the fresh water tank and a special filter at the kitchen sink so we can drink the water from our fresh water tank.  We do not know how old our tank is so we have been using this water for dishes only.  Before we installed the special filter we would go up to the lounge every day and fill a 2 gallon water tank. We installed a new fill hose for the water tank.  The old one was dirty and gross.  Installing the two water filters and the new hose took 7 days of work.  I learned how to drill a hole in a 7″ space when your drill is 9″ long. ( use your dremel tool and drill the screws in at a 45 degree angle)

Matt ran the Neuse River Bridge Half Marathon in October.  Jan went back to Raleigh for the state fair and to see friends and co workers, she just got back from a weekend at Bald Head Island and will be in Wilmington this weekend for the NC Shell Collectors Club quarterly meeting.

Scout watches us work and does not get too stressed about life.

We had an issue with squirrels getting into the main sail this summer.  After we had that sail fixed we had the sail cover worked on and then sent the front sail to be worked on.    That was one expensive squirrel!!

Fall is here!  I am looking forward to sitting in the cockpit and watching the trees change colors.     At night the stars are fantastic.   Last week we could see Jupiter and Mars? just above the tree line in the south east.

More to come,

Jan, Matt & Scout