Oriental NC, June 29. One of the odd things about a blog is that a Post Script comes before the actual report, so if you haven’t read about the voyage from St. Thomas, USVI, to Morehead City, NC scroll down and read it first.
We have been in Oriental for over a week now, and I have finally started to work on the boat. One of the things that puzzles me is that the autopilot has a lot more wires coming out the back than I can account for. I got to looking around to see where they go. I checked the compass and found two sets of wires coming out of the bottom, which didn’t seem right. One set of wires went off through the bilge and the other set terminated in a plug that looked similar to the ones used on the old Signet instruments that the previous owner removed from the boat.
I looked at the installation instructions in the manual and found two steps for the compass. The first step is to connect the cable from the compass electronic unit to the main control unit. The second step is to connect the other wires to the compass.
Connect them to the compass?? I thought this box was the compass. It turns out that it is an electronic control for the compass. I pulled up the floor boards and lo and behold, there was a box that looked like a compass, but had no wires attached to it. The loose plug hung over the compass.
The plug (right) should be plugged into the center of the compass (black thing with silver ring on left)
On closer inspection I found that the ring on the plug used to secure the connection was pretty well worn. Also, the wire clips to secure the compass wire were not connected to the wire. I have connected the plug to the into the compass and tied down the wire with the clips. I’m not celebrating yet, but this would explain why the autopilot failed.
This is the way the plug should look for the autopilot to work
Next: Life in Oriental
The Adventures of Little Rosie 
September 11, 2011 at 5:55 pm |
Hey guys. I am glad your trip went well. I am getting caught up on your blog.
September 11, 2011 at 5:56 pm |
Hey guys, I am glad your trip went well. I am getting caught up on your blog.