Spring Upgrades

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘electricity’? I’ll go first:

Sorcery.

You might be thinking, “Don’t you teach grade five? Isn’t electricity a science unit?” Yep, you bet it is! Despite teaching the basics of electricity to future generations, I admittedly still barely understand it myself. I get lost somewhere between volts, amps, amp hours, watts, and current. I am also scared of being zapped. So when Brad left for the island a few weeks ago to replace the entire electrical system on Splash, I was gearing up to feign interest and understanding. Among the real jobs Brad set out to accomplish, I also wanted him to document the process so I could write about it later. Well, he did manage to complete all of his real jobs. The documentation, not so much… So, if you want the technical explanation of Splash’s electrical upgrade, ask Brad directly and he’ll be happy to Brad-splain it for you!

Basically, we bought Splash with an archaic battery set-up that was leaking *mystery liquid from swollen lead-acid batteries. Now don’t get me wrong, all the switches turned on and the outlets worked so things were mostly fine, but the fellow that did our survey was like “WHOA, this needs some love.” Needless to say, we agreed. So, Boxing Day rolled around and instead of indulging in a cool new TV or something else lavish, we bought four LiTime lithium batteries. They were a smoking good deal and the upgrade was inevitable, so **we went for it. When they arrived, they were shipped with stickers and their logo features a man that looks exactly like Brad, so we knew we made the right choice.

Fast forward to March and Brad is jet-setting to the island while I hold down the fort at home. To the best of my understanding, he started by pulling out the old batteries (6 batteries @ 130lbs each, ouch) and untangling all of the old wiring. After recycling the old batteries (did you know you get money back for doing this? $130 richer, cha-ching), Brad went straight to the store and spent all our new cash in one place: Trotac Marine. He had to purchase a new inverter and a bunch of other stuff like wire (LOL, I’m feeling my knowledge gap more and more as I write this). Anyways, I dunno what he bought really but I do know that I’m not quitting my day job any time soon. Every night, Brad would call to tell me what he did that day. I hummed and hawed and asked good questions.

Brad spent the next six days doing boat yoga -- crammed into the engine room and battery compartment, working away at the refit. He installed fuses and made connections and all those fun things. He’s a pretty smart guy and it seems he figured it out because we have new batteries and all of the lights still work. Huzzah! We even made $300 from the sale of our old inverter so basically we’re rich now. During Brad's time ‘behind the scenes’ on Splash, he also managed to reorganize and label a whole bunch of other wiring. Before, it was a bit of a rat’s nest of cables and stuff running every which way. Now, it is allegedly tidy enough that, “Even you [Bella] could make sense of it” (Brad, 2025). I’ll be the judge of this in April when we head out to the island for my spring break.

What else is on the horizon for Splash this spring? Well, she is getting some seriously fancy new SeaDek (thanks to DSS Dynamic Shipwright Services) and we are so excited to see the finished product. Basically, we had a crummy old non-skid paint that despite the name it was actually quite skid-y, and not only did it look ugly and need to be redone, Cinna and Lhotse were a train smash walking on deck. Buying a boat for them wasn’t enough, we had to upgrade the decking too. Sheesh! But really, we’re excited. This was a splurge and it is going to look awesome. Brad is extra excited because for the first time ever, we (he) isn’t doing the work ourselves (himself) and we’re leaving it to the pros!

Also on the list is an engine realignment and fuel injector servicing. Super exciting things, really. With all this, she will be ship shape to cruise the Salish Sea this summer and we are SO pumped!

*Brad probably knows what this liquid is called, I do not

**How we live our life; questionable

My face whenever Brad talks electricity to me

Brad's office for the week

Our beautiful new batteries!

I honestly don't really know what this is a picture of. The inside of the battery compartment or something?

Is this an after picture?

Train smash!

This piece is gonzo now!

Splash's worn out non-skid, soon to be SeaDek!