Category Archives: Repair

Where we fixed something that failed.

More Exploring Deltaville, Virginia, USA

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Dawn on Wednesday

On the passage, Eric had noticed an issue with the newly fixed radio: it was working fine, but it was complaining about low voltage. He spent Wednesday morning on the phone with the company who’d done the repair to troubleshoot the problem. Eric eventually figured out that there was a knob to adjust voltage on the power supply unit (which was behind the panel), and that knob was in a spot where it could have been easily bumped when the converter box was installed. In the course of the troubleshooting, the “expert” gave Eric some incorrect information, which really bothered Eric.

In between phone calls, Eric changed the generator oil and filter, drained the engine oil, and replaced the O ring in the oil drain hose for the main engine. We also went to the boat yard next door to say goodbye to the family that had been hauled out yesterday. They were a really nice family and we hope to see them again when they return.

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Finishing Up the Boat Work and Getting Fuel in North Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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On Tuesday, June 17, we missed the sunrise, but here was a morning shot.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday finishing up the projects. Eric confirmed radios were working, the other two air conditioning units were descaled, and Yacht Tech finished up the waxing, stainless polishing, and the gelcoat work. Unfortunately, not every gelcoat spot was repaired. There had been two separate work orders, and due to a misunderstanding, Eric had only authorized one.

We’d mentioned that the bottom red boot stripe had been touched up. Yacht Tech also touched up the smokestack stripe. When all the outside work was completed, they gave Kosmos a good washing and wipe down.

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More Boat Work, North Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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Dawn in Punta Gorda on Monday, June 16.

First thing in the morning, we said our goodbyes to Christy and headed back to Kosmos in North Palm Beach. This time, we took the Highway 70 back, which, for most of the drive was a two lane highway. The road took us through several small towns and a lot of farmland. It was a nice drive, with a lot more character and local feel that we’d gotten from I-75.

When we arrived, there were already workers onboard. On the exterior, there were people detailing the boat, one finishing up the waxing and one polishing the stainless steel.

Inside, someone was working on the VHF radios. We’d upgraded the radios in 2024, but there was a buzzing when the battery chargers were going, which interfered with our ability to hear/be heard. DC to DC voltage converters were installed.

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Replacing The Alternator Regulator

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As you may recall, in Panama, we had a catastrophic failure of our ARCO Zeus alternator regulator. The summary was that there was a mandatory software update, and the update caused the unit to malfunction and over voltage our main 12-volt electrical system. This caused our battery manager, in an effort to protect the batteries, to disconnect 12v power from the boat. Without the 12v power we lost radar, charts, GPS, lights, and various other systems. We also had a fire suppression system that shut down the main engine because it thought the loss of power was due to fire. Ouch. Fortunately, the failure happened someplace where we were not in danger, but that was mostly luck. Had we been someplace else when the boat suddenly stopped operating, we likely would have crashed into something. We also had enough emergency and backup systems that we were able to quickly gain control of the boat (we literally had a back up propulsion engine, as well as three other batteries banks to power the boat).

To continue cruising, the temporary solution was running the generator to power the batteries instead of using the main engine alternator while underway.

The company who installed the upgraded battery system, including the alternator regulator, was Weber Marine. Even though we in no way blame Weber for the situation, they covered replacing the ARCO Zeus as part of their warranty on their work.

David from Weber Marine flew in on Sunday, June 8 so that he could start work on Monday morning. When we’d scheduled this trip, Kosmos was supposed to already be back in the water and thus the A/C working. Having to do this project on the hard with no A/C was painful. Also, the yard hours were limited, so Eric and David couldn’t come in early to work during the coolest part of the day.

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Recap of Kosmos’s Two Weeks in Seminole Boat Yard, Palm Beach Gardens, Floria, USA

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Seminole Boatyard was responsible for hauling us out, pressure washing/scraping the bottom, and giving Kosmos a space to be worked on with power and water. For the actual work, we’d hired a company called Yacht Tech, who specializes in Nordhavns. Yesterday, when we’d said that Eric had met with “the staff,” we’d meant Yacht Tech.

The primary purpose for hauling out was to get new bottom paint. Usually, they’ll do spot sanding where needed and, wherever the paint is fine, will simply put another coat over the existing coats. But it was time to sand off all of the old paint and start fresh. The sanding took a couple of days. They waited to paint the bottom until the rest of the work on the hull had been completed, so the paint didn’t get done until the second week.

It was also time to balance the propellor. The propellor was removed and taken to a machine shop for balancing. One of the blades was off balance and had to be adjusted. It took four days before the propellor was put back on.

Propellor removed

We’d requested that Kosmos’s hull be compounded (old wax removed) and waxed. In yesterday’s post, we’d failed to mention that as soon as she was situated in her spot, they’d started working on the compounding/waxing along the waterline. We decided to go with compounding this time because, being out of the water, they had leverage that they simply cannot get when the boat is in the water (and normally the boat is in the water during waxing).

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