Saturday 5/7

Today is finishing up moving the batteries out of the way. Last weekend I moved 8 of the 12 batteries. Today is move the other 4 and get them hooked up so we still have 12v power on the boat. The big reason for this is to power the bilge pumps as necessary. Plus many of the interior light are 12v.

The last four batteries are going aft of the fuel tank and to the outside of the fresh water tank. There is an area about 24” x 24” that will fit the four batteries. They are wired together to get 12v in two parallel banks. That should be enough power for what I need. I have four charging circuits; Day, Night, Port Engine and Starboard engine. I only need one circuit for these four batteries. The night circuit is the only one with long enough wires to reach into the new location, so that is what will be used. I slide 1”x2” pieces of wood under the inside edge of the batteries to compensate for the tilt of the hull. After carefully checking all the POS and NEG connections, I throw the switch. Nothing happens. No power. All the leads look correct. I quickly unhook the leads and break out the multi-meter. (Should have done this first but everything looked fine.) With the meter, everything checks out fine. Plus to Negative. Plus to Plus. Negative to Negative. Yup, that is right. So why no power? After under 10 minutes rummaging around thru all the disconnected leads, I find another Night Negative lead. So I have two that are labeled Night Negative. Strange. Well after switching out the other Night Negative with the new one, I have 12.7 volts. Success! Only took 3 ½ hours for four batteries.

The rest of the day is spent taking the battery box out of the engine room and putting up on the fly bridge to clear the space below. Not an easy task as the box in 6 feet long by 2 feet wide by 1 foot high. Looks like a coffin. Remember it holds all twelve golf card batteries in three compartments including Plexiglas lids. I also switched the dingle end of end as the 125lb engine was on the starboard side and that is where I have been moving fuel. So by putting the engine on the port side, that 125lbs can help offset some fuel.

Sunday 5/8

Before I can remove the aft tank, I have to finish moving all the fuel to the two starboard tanks. I have about 45 gallons left to move. I hook up the transfer pump again and start pumping. I pump the fuel to the forward starboard tank and the fuel is supposed to also transfer to the aft tank thru a transfer tube that self levels the fuel in all the tanks. However it is not moving to the aft tank. All the valves are open. The transfer tube must be blocked. Oh well, what else can go wrong. So after filling up the starboard forward tank, I move the pump hoses to the aft tank directly and continue pumping.

While the pumps runs, I start removing the fuel manifold from the side of the aft tank. All this plumbing needs to be removed so I can get at the silver covers on the tank. The tank will also come out this direction, over top of the removed battery box. The fuel manifold distributes the bypass fuel from the engines and generator back to the selected tanks. There are three inputs, engines at the ends and tank returns at the top. This is all copper pipe that is runs all over the engine room. None of it can be bent as I do not want to have to make new runs. So some care is needed. Also, labels are needed on each pipe as well as the pictures to get it all back together again.

At the end of the day, this is all that is left. Still some work to do as these two lines also need to be removed. But I will save that for another day.