The new fridge cooling unit is here!
 It's a Nova Cool with 3 evaporator plates.
This has been something I wanted to get to since I bought the boat. It got kicked down the list again and again. We used a plug in unit to get by. The cooler on this boat is huge. almost 7 square feet. It will be great to get it operational. 

I built an aluminum bracket to mount the
compressor unit on. It will have plastic
UHMW insert below and above the hold 
down screws. This is to reduce vibration.

 This aluminum arm is sticking out at the bottom is to receive a section of angle that will support the two copper lines before the fittings.

 Something like this

 I have to rebuild the shelf that it sits on- located on top of the hot water tank.  It was somebodies shop project in grade school I think. The evaporator plates need some thinking too.  Top loaders are a hassle when you need something at the bottom. I want to build some kind of insert that pulls everything out from part of the box. This also means I need more battery power but that was a problem last year when we sat on the hook.
Lots to do. January is half over. Got that going for me.

 Started on the fridge project. The space is huge for a boat this size. 7 cubic feet! I chiseled out the wood trim surrounding the cover. It is cracked in two places. I might use aluminum to replace it. The ledge supporting the top is too small. The current unit is a Adler Barbour 50. It runs off 12 volts and has a large power draw. The replacement unit is the same. I came across a NorCold replacement that I like. The SCQT-4408F. 12 /120 volt. looking into it.

 A few shots from the boat.  On the advice of a fellow boater I left the cover off this year. Downstairs is bone dry. I had some water last year which occurred because of the tarp. Snow blew under it and jammed up over the sliding hatch. It just wicked in. If you don't have one of these elongated 'tents' that you see in the photo then it ain't worth it.

Remember to visit your boat in winter. It misses you!

Nice little Christmas gift. Can't wait to use it. The Shards are giving a presentation locally through our Sail Squadron in a few weeks. looking forward to that. They sail a 49 Southerly yacht and do a TV show about their travels. Come on spring. Life is too short for Winter.  Happy 2014 all!

Well, not much going on till spring. I am trying to gather info on using a tablet as a map GPS. I bought a Bad Elf and tried it on my wife's I-Pad. It worked great but some of the sites I watch recommend the Google unit which has a built in GPS. If I can make this work then the existing unit I have (an old Garmin) will go downstairs by the nav table. If it is warm over the holidays I will size up a few projects but right now I am working on some home projects.
Merry Christmas to all.

Here it comes kids. F'ing winter. Gimme shelter is in her cradle. I changed the oil and winterized the water system and waste tank. All the sails are in the garage and we wait for the dark season to pass. Big plans for next summer.

HELP!!

I headed out on Saturday with my better half for 4 hours out on Lake St.Clair. 8 knots of wind, warm but cloudy. Hey, not bad for October.
I am getting better at this sailing stuff. I sailed into the flow of the river and tacked back and forth between Peche isle and Belle Isle on the US side.
I kept the tacks well over 130 degrees apart due to the wind coming up the channel and the fact that the two knots of current swept me along. Once clear of Peche I headed over into the secondary channel and worked my way back up against the current toward my marina (Wind astern). No motor and best of all I wasn't nervous about it. Working my way along an inclosed area with all sails up made me very uptight when I started sailing. It is one thing to motor out to the middle of a lake and raise the sails, quite another to confidently work your way along a narrow channel with huge freighters passing you.
  OH THE PHOTO?? as I headed back up the river this guy and his crew flew by. I thought "they're out of my league" They turned into the channel on the right side of the red buoy heading upstream. Then they promptly grounded Red Right Return. Red (To your)Right (When you are returning to the source of the water you are in)Return.
You have been educated.

 Last big sail of the season. We had SSE winds and followed the shoreline from Windsor to Belle River on Lake St.Clair. Another big fire over in Detroit to watch as we sailed along. Well next week I guess we will move her to the boat yard. What a drag! I hate winter. Lots to do this winter. New fridge, GPS, and maybe a dodger.$$$