Roger that!

Now that the Kubota runs, all the "accessories" can now be installed.  The refrigeration lines were installed as of the last posting, but the refrigeration system was leak tested and given an initial charge.  All seems to be working properly and the final system charge will be adjusted soon.

The last of the old (dark red) formica is gone.  It was on top of the forward cabinet, next to the head.  It was above our eyesight, but since we wanted to take all the formica off the boat, it was finished and cleaned up. 

Currently Mike is installing a carbon filter in the water system.  And over the next couple of months (no real hurry since we won't be making water while the boat is sitting in the slip) we'll be installing the watermaker (powered by Frankengen).

The ICOM M802 marine SSB radio has given us a little bit of a pain in the wallet.  It has been sent away for repairs a couple of times.  The first was for a firmware upgrade (to ICOM in Washington state), the second for a software change so we could program an MMSI number and user-selectable voice compression (to a company in FL), a third trip (to ICOM again) because we started developing some transmitter problems.  The evaluation showed a bad filter board and because it was open, they found that there was corrosion on the top and the bottom of the case.  With that all replaced, the radio came back and reception was great!  However, after a couple of days, we developed a problem while transmitting.  We called ICOM and their technician said his experience with that problem was usually located in the power source.  So Mike did some troubleshooting/testing and located the problem.  A web search pinpointed the culprit and the required IC chip (that controls the precision voltage regulator) was the problem.  Solved -- for $1.50!  (Note that we're testing the radio in the basement, so the power supply at the house is not the same power supply on the boat.)

Bad power supply chip

We will not be around for a few weeks.  We have volunteered to crew for someone who needs to bring their "new" Swan 46 up from Jacksonville, FL.  So for the next couple of weeks we will be driving to Florida, making preps for an offshore trip, and sailing north to the Chesapeake Bay.  You can watch our progress (if you're interested) on http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionreportsDetail.aspx?callsign=k3mcd
 (We're using Mike's callsign for this trip:  K3MCD.)