Well, this was to be day 1 but the weather forecast was 25-35 and higher.
Stay put until Tuesday. It was nice to have an extra day to finish up some projects, like adding the battery isolator I found at Sailor’s Exchange in St. Augustine weeks earlier for $5 still in the original packaging. As it turned out, it didn’t work very well.
A few random notes:
Prior to departure, the engine ran hot. found impeller blade was blocking intake hose on raw water pump. Replaced impeller, now runs cool.
Charging system wonky, At startup, the voltage does not go up right away as expected. Bad alternator? While running boat to test overheat issue, the voltage crept up to over 13 volts. Not the 14 that I would expect but I’ll take it. Extra day allowed me to install a charge isolator to allow the engine to charge multiple batteries while preventing the batteries from discharging unexpectedly (specifically the starting battery). The system should allow the alternator to charge both house and starting batteries at the same time.