Update
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sun 9 Sep 2012 21:59
There was a burst of activity on the engine front last week, but it all seems to have come to a grinding halt again. Right now I'm 'missing' an alternator. I think that Martin has been contacted by one or both of the two organizations that I made a report to but if so it doesn't appear to have had much of an effect. I will tackle him later on today, after all it is Monday morning here and if he is true to form Mondays are a 'recovery' day for him.
No luck yet in resurrecting the autopilot. The manual steering works OK, the autopilot control head works OK but won't 'turn de rudders mon'. The A/P pump was taken into a hydraulic pump repair shop earlier this morning. Their first thoughts were that the permanent magnets had been glued in place and were somehow causing a short. I should know more in a couple of hours. Naturally the pump was fettled by Arun the Elektrik, so there's another one off the Christmas card list. he told me the pump was OK! And still no working masthead lights. In fact, now I come to think of it I'm not really much further forward than I was the last time I posted. Oh, not quite true. I brought a pressure cooker. Beans are back on the menu!
The first batch of rice wine has been completed and sampled. I can still see so it can't be too bad.
I'm going to re-solder the connections on the solar panel today. I'm getting 18+ volts across the contacts on the panel. so it would be just my luck that the new solar controller I got from the UK is a duff one! Naturally, this was about six + months ago. As I have a 600A/H battery pack, I might just connect the panel direct to the batteries, opinion is divided as to the wisdom of that though.
More in a day or so, or even sooner if I have news of anything!
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