Best Of

A text to a neighbour:


Hi, Max. This is Richard, next door. I’ve been riddled with guilt for a few months and have been trying to get up the courage to tell you face-to-face. When you’re not around, I’ve been sharing your wife, day and night, probably much more than you. I haven’t been getting it at home recently. I know that’s no excuse. The temptation was just too great. I can’t live with the guilt & hope you’ll accept my sincere apology and forgive me. Please suggest a fee for usage and I’ll pay you. Richard

Max, feeling enraged and betrayed, grabbed his gun, went next door, and shot Richard dead. He returned home, shot his wife, poured himself a stiff drink and sat down on the sofa. Max then looked at his phone and discovered a second text message from Richard.

SECOND TEXT MESSAGE:

Hi, Max. Richard here again. Sorry about the typo on my last text. I assume you figured it out and noticed that the darned Spell-Check had changed “wi-fi” to “wife.” Technology, huh? It’ll be the death of us all.

[EDIT:  The fuse block shown in this picture had to be replaced because it is not ignition-protected.  This photo shows a Blue Sea Systems 5035.  I replaced it with a Blue Sea Systems 5051.]

Progress!  The rewiring project is 90% done.  By the time I finish, every wire and cable in the engine room will have been re-routed, replaced or removed in the name of safety and maintainability.  

Originally, each starter battery had three things hard-wired to the battery: 

• DTS controller at the helm (40 amps)
• Trim pump (20 amps)
• DTS actuator at the engine (5 amps)

ABYC recommends connecting these loads to the battery switch, not the battery, so that's what I'm doing.  When I turn off the battery switches, it'll disconnect everything except the essentials (bilge pumps and Mercathodes).  

I'm rewiring the house battery with a circuit breaker that doubles as a cutoff switch.  All wires to the ground bus have been trimmed to length and terminated with proper heat-shrink ring terminals.  And everything is secured in slotted wire trays.  

I also rerouted the big battery cables to run along the transom instead of laying down in the bilge (another ABYC recommendation).