AIS

The first job on Monday morning was to install the NMEA 2000 backbone kit, the power cable and the drop cable to connect to the chart plotter are only a metre long which limits the position of the backbone, I ended up installing it in the cable void next to the AIS unit I still had to extend the power cable which was just a couple of through crimps the only other option would have been to obtain a longer drop cable to connect the chart plotter and as I already had some suitable power cable it was a simple decision.

NMEA 2000 starter kit

Backbone installed and connected

Once the cables were connected I switched on the power to the NMEA 2000 system and then switched on the chart plotter, the GPS in the AIS unit took a few minutes to lock on to the satellites but eventually a number of ships appeared on the plotter screen shown as triangles on the photograph below the top two are not really on top of each other they are the tugs tied up alongside each other in Sheerness

When I got home I checked on the Marine Traffic website and sure enough a mauve circle indicates New Morning tied up to her berth.

Last weekend I made a start on cutting out the segments to make up the semicircular part of the forward heads door frame. these were then drilled for dowels before being glued together with some thickened epoxy before being clamped up between two pieces of laminated chipboard to keep the whole assembly flat.

Trial assembly of segments

Segments dowelled and ready for glueing

Once the epoxy had cured I marked out the top radius and roughed it out with the jigsaw so that on Wednesday I could fit the top section of the frame into the opening into the bulkhead, I temporarily screwed it into place before setting up the door in it's correct position so that I could mark out the top radius of the door on the frame. I clamped a piece of timber across the door opening at the correct height to support the door in it's correct position before marking the lower edge of the frame.

Door in position temporarily

While the door was in position I measured the width of the right hand vertical section of the frame and marked the position of the rebates for the door hinges. The next stage was to cut the timber down to the correct width and cut out the rebates for the hinges so that this morning I could temporarily install the right hand vertical and attach the door on a couple of screws to make sure that everything would fit and the door would open and close.

Door temporarily on it's hinges

The plan for next week is to permanently install the right hand side and top of the frame, with screws and thickened epoxy. so that the door can be properly hung I can then measure and cut the vertical frame for the left hand side of the door, once this has been done I can finalise the cover strip to cover the joint between the frame and the bulkhead opening, on the forward face of the bulkhead this cover strip will overlap the frame by about 5mm to form the door stops.