Sailing things right

The second part of the project went terribly wrong. :)
There's no way I could undo these small bolts.
Looks like I have to spend some more money on a new connector.

#bobaka, everyone!

More wallpapers!

Wallpapers, everyone!

This is the sky for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence no big gain from the solar panels. I even had to shut down the starlink and switch to mobile internet to save energy. Starlink eats 50-70Wh which is a lot for the boat. About the same as the fridge, which is, usually, the most greedy unit of the whole system.

Who's the champ? — I'm the champ! I got 220 all over the boat! Yohooo!

Since some assholes decided that international comms in one certain country should be banned, I've decided that I'm going to resist and give my friends the way to communicate.

Now I'm setting up a private conferencing server.

If you'd like to participate in testing — ping me.

Can't stop myself. :))

Someone got a proper radio!

There is a sailing family which I'm following on YouTube and the guy there constantly making me feel ashamed by the difference in the way he's doing things versus mine. And he's doing things right but I'm making shortcuts and, tbh, too often.
So, today I completed a little project about the shore power supply and now I'm feeling a bit better and safer. :)

I'll put high-res video to the comments

Moving towards my winter stay pier.
In two days comes an unusually violent Mistral, so I'll spend two days in a protected bay and then will do another quite short passage to the final destination.

#bun is sleeping

Ultra-high-tech smart dumb starlink power consumption controller upgrade. :)

Almost done. Tomorrow we'll see how much more I gain with the separated panels setup.

Facing another storm coming. Sitting on anchor at about 5m depth. At first time I threw out 40 meters of chain and it was ok until the thunderstorm came yesterday and abruptly hit me with 30 knots from the opposite side which resulted a little drag.
So I decided to add more chain, then a little more... So five minutes later I came up with 80m of chain out at 5m depth. I'll be very surprised if it will slide even a meter during tomorrow. :)

Another thing for better autonomy — a heavy duty inverter.
So I bought one from Renogy.

Out of the box I got two sets of power cables. Very short ones but that's not the case. The problem is that these cables and connectors are rated for 100Amps. And it's about the short, not about the consistent load. Even using both at once I'd get 200amps*12V=2400watts. :(

I wish they didn't put cables at all and make it few euros cheaper.

Ok, windy days are over.
Today I've emptied one water tank — full three weeks on 150l tank.
Tomorrow I'm going to the marina for few hours to do groceries, refill the tank and pick up my parcels.

One of them is a new heavy-duty inverter, that will bring my autonomy to the new level. Also there will be a new headlight to replace the lost one. I'll have to invent the way to climb the mast alone to install it. :)

Btw: new anchor is absolutely amazing. I didn't slip for an inch. Got my own mooring.:)

Yes- and terday

The season is over, marina prices are already twice as low, so I'm going to marina for resupply.
Weather forecast for the next weekend is unstable but for sure the will be no fair winds, so here I am.

Recent discovery: by docs, both of my water tanks are 150l each. But it turned out that the rear one is at least 50l bigger since I'm using it for a whole month already and only now it started showing low levels on a gauge.
Previous month I've been using the front one and it lasted three weeks.

My DIY pressure buffer decided to start leaking and during the disassembly process it turned out that the beverage bottle I've used is:
- quite unique (couldn't find a replacement even in a store nearby)
- became brittle and broke while I was trying to tighten up the joint.

So I came up with the brutal solution of epoxying the coca-cola bottle inside the T-junction pipe.

But now I have another problem: cola bottle is more than twice bigger and won't fit to the place where the old one was installed.
:)

Upd: Heh, it did fit. Even without curses. And doesn't leak! Photo is in the comments.

Splitting panels to separate controllers was the right decision.
Panels were connected in serie before, hence if one got even a little shade from the backstay the whole setup loses quite a significant amount of output. It's just physics, can't be fixed.
Here at the picture you may see that one panel is generating ~15% more energy than another. The starboard one is shaded by the backstay, which is just a 10mm cable, but since the shade stripe goes over all the panel, it loose a lot of output.

Let's call it "winter weather drill".
Absolutely clear that I need MOAR PAWA!

Less than 200W solar output at noon. :(

If you'd like to see what it's like to sit on anchor in strong winds — here's the illustration.

1. My track on anchor alarm app
2. Steady wind speed
3. The most violent gust so far
4. How 20-27 knots of wind looks from the bow.

Today I woke up for the first time because got wet through the hatch. :)
On my second time I got this view on a sunrise.

Аааааа! АААААА!!111oneone

Starlink adds a significant amount to the energy consumption. About 1KW/day.
Luckily, I was prepared.
But that's close to maximum of what I may gain from my solar panels per day.
Hence the project of building a hard-top and installing a few additional panels on it just got +1 point to its priority.

The second part of the project went terribly wrong. :)
There's no way I could undo these small bolts.
Looks like I have to spend some more money on a new connector.

Yes- and terday

Moving towards my winter stay pier.
In two days comes an unusually violent Mistral, so I'll spend two days in a protected bay and then will do another quite short passage to the final destination.

More wallpapers!

My DIY pressure buffer decided to start leaking and during the disassembly process it turned out that the beverage bottle I've used is:
- quite unique (couldn't find a replacement even in a store nearby)
- became brittle and broke while I was trying to tighten up the joint.

So I came up with the brutal solution of epoxying the coca-cola bottle inside the T-junction pipe.

But now I have another problem: cola bottle is more than twice bigger and won't fit to the place where the old one was installed.
:)

Upd: Heh, it did fit. Even without curses. And doesn't leak! Photo is in the comments.

#bun is sleeping

Let's call it "winter weather drill".
Absolutely clear that I need MOAR PAWA!

Less than 200W solar output at noon. :(

Almost done. Tomorrow we'll see how much more I gain with the separated panels setup.

Who's the champ? — I'm the champ! I got 220 all over the boat! Yohooo!

If you'd like to see what it's like to sit on anchor in strong winds — here's the illustration.

1. My track on anchor alarm app
2. Steady wind speed
3. The most violent gust so far
4. How 20-27 knots of wind looks from the bow.

Facing another storm coming. Sitting on anchor at about 5m depth. At first time I threw out 40 meters of chain and it was ok until the thunderstorm came yesterday and abruptly hit me with 30 knots from the opposite side which resulted a little drag.
So I decided to add more chain, then a little more... So five minutes later I came up with 80m of chain out at 5m depth. I'll be very surprised if it will slide even a meter during tomorrow. :)

Can't stop myself. :))

Аааааа! АААААА!!111oneone

Ok, windy days are over.
Today I've emptied one water tank — full three weeks on 150l tank.
Tomorrow I'm going to the marina for few hours to do groceries, refill the tank and pick up my parcels.

One of them is a new heavy-duty inverter, that will bring my autonomy to the new level. Also there will be a new headlight to replace the lost one. I'll have to invent the way to climb the mast alone to install it. :)

Btw: new anchor is absolutely amazing. I didn't slip for an inch. Got my own mooring.:)

There is a sailing family which I'm following on YouTube and the guy there constantly making me feel ashamed by the difference in the way he's doing things versus mine. And he's doing things right but I'm making shortcuts and, tbh, too often.
So, today I completed a little project about the shore power supply and now I'm feeling a bit better and safer. :)

I'll put high-res video to the comments

#bobaka, everyone!

The season is over, marina prices are already twice as low, so I'm going to marina for resupply.
Weather forecast for the next weekend is unstable but for sure the will be no fair winds, so here I am.

Recent discovery: by docs, both of my water tanks are 150l each. But it turned out that the rear one is at least 50l bigger since I'm using it for a whole month already and only now it started showing low levels on a gauge.
Previous month I've been using the front one and it lasted three weeks.

Wallpapers, everyone!

Splitting panels to separate controllers was the right decision.
Panels were connected in serie before, hence if one got even a little shade from the backstay the whole setup loses quite a significant amount of output. It's just physics, can't be fixed.
Here at the picture you may see that one panel is generating ~15% more energy than another. The starboard one is shaded by the backstay, which is just a 10mm cable, but since the shade stripe goes over all the panel, it loose a lot of output.

Ultra-high-tech smart dumb starlink power consumption controller upgrade. :)

This is the sky for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence no big gain from the solar panels. I even had to shut down the starlink and switch to mobile internet to save energy. Starlink eats 50-70Wh which is a lot for the boat. About the same as the fridge, which is, usually, the most greedy unit of the whole system.

Since some assholes decided that international comms in one certain country should be banned, I've decided that I'm going to resist and give my friends the way to communicate.

Now I'm setting up a private conferencing server.

If you'd like to participate in testing — ping me.

Today I woke up for the first time because got wet through the hatch. :)
On my second time I got this view on a sunrise.

Another thing for better autonomy — a heavy duty inverter.
So I bought one from Renogy.

Out of the box I got two sets of power cables. Very short ones but that's not the case. The problem is that these cables and connectors are rated for 100Amps. And it's about the short, not about the consistent load. Even using both at once I'd get 200amps*12V=2400watts. :(

I wish they didn't put cables at all and make it few euros cheaper.

Someone got a proper radio!

Starlink adds a significant amount to the energy consumption. About 1KW/day.
Luckily, I was prepared.
But that's close to maximum of what I may gain from my solar panels per day.
Hence the project of building a hard-top and installing a few additional panels on it just got +1 point to its priority.

The second part of the project went terribly wrong. :)
There's no way I could undo these small bolts.
Looks like I have to spend some more money on a new connector.

There is a sailing family which I'm following on YouTube and the guy there constantly making me feel ashamed by the difference in the way he's doing things versus mine. And he's doing things right but I'm making shortcuts and, tbh, too often.
So, today I completed a little project about the shore power supply and now I'm feeling a bit better and safer. :)

I'll put high-res video to the comments

Yes- and terday

#bobaka, everyone!

Moving towards my winter stay pier.
In two days comes an unusually violent Mistral, so I'll spend two days in a protected bay and then will do another quite short passage to the final destination.

The season is over, marina prices are already twice as low, so I'm going to marina for resupply.
Weather forecast for the next weekend is unstable but for sure the will be no fair winds, so here I am.

Recent discovery: by docs, both of my water tanks are 150l each. But it turned out that the rear one is at least 50l bigger since I'm using it for a whole month already and only now it started showing low levels on a gauge.
Previous month I've been using the front one and it lasted three weeks.

More wallpapers!

My DIY pressure buffer decided to start leaking and during the disassembly process it turned out that the beverage bottle I've used is:
- quite unique (couldn't find a replacement even in a store nearby)
- became brittle and broke while I was trying to tighten up the joint.

So I came up with the brutal solution of epoxying the coca-cola bottle inside the T-junction pipe.

But now I have another problem: cola bottle is more than twice bigger and won't fit to the place where the old one was installed.
:)

Upd: Heh, it did fit. Even without curses. And doesn't leak! Photo is in the comments.

Wallpapers, everyone!

#bun is sleeping

Splitting panels to separate controllers was the right decision.
Panels were connected in serie before, hence if one got even a little shade from the backstay the whole setup loses quite a significant amount of output. It's just physics, can't be fixed.
Here at the picture you may see that one panel is generating ~15% more energy than another. The starboard one is shaded by the backstay, which is just a 10mm cable, but since the shade stripe goes over all the panel, it loose a lot of output.

Ultra-high-tech smart dumb starlink power consumption controller upgrade. :)

Let's call it "winter weather drill".
Absolutely clear that I need MOAR PAWA!

Less than 200W solar output at noon. :(

This is the sky for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence no big gain from the solar panels. I even had to shut down the starlink and switch to mobile internet to save energy. Starlink eats 50-70Wh which is a lot for the boat. About the same as the fridge, which is, usually, the most greedy unit of the whole system.

Almost done. Tomorrow we'll see how much more I gain with the separated panels setup.

Who's the champ? — I'm the champ! I got 220 all over the boat! Yohooo!

If you'd like to see what it's like to sit on anchor in strong winds — here's the illustration.

1. My track on anchor alarm app
2. Steady wind speed
3. The most violent gust so far
4. How 20-27 knots of wind looks from the bow.

Since some assholes decided that international comms in one certain country should be banned, I've decided that I'm going to resist and give my friends the way to communicate.

Now I'm setting up a private conferencing server.

If you'd like to participate in testing — ping me.

Facing another storm coming. Sitting on anchor at about 5m depth. At first time I threw out 40 meters of chain and it was ok until the thunderstorm came yesterday and abruptly hit me with 30 knots from the opposite side which resulted a little drag.
So I decided to add more chain, then a little more... So five minutes later I came up with 80m of chain out at 5m depth. I'll be very surprised if it will slide even a meter during tomorrow. :)

Today I woke up for the first time because got wet through the hatch. :)
On my second time I got this view on a sunrise.

Can't stop myself. :))

Another thing for better autonomy — a heavy duty inverter.
So I bought one from Renogy.

Out of the box I got two sets of power cables. Very short ones but that's not the case. The problem is that these cables and connectors are rated for 100Amps. And it's about the short, not about the consistent load. Even using both at once I'd get 200amps*12V=2400watts. :(

I wish they didn't put cables at all and make it few euros cheaper.

Аааааа! АААААА!!111oneone

Someone got a proper radio!

Ok, windy days are over.
Today I've emptied one water tank — full three weeks on 150l tank.
Tomorrow I'm going to the marina for few hours to do groceries, refill the tank and pick up my parcels.

One of them is a new heavy-duty inverter, that will bring my autonomy to the new level. Also there will be a new headlight to replace the lost one. I'll have to invent the way to climb the mast alone to install it. :)

Btw: new anchor is absolutely amazing. I didn't slip for an inch. Got my own mooring.:)

Starlink adds a significant amount to the energy consumption. About 1KW/day.
Luckily, I was prepared.
But that's close to maximum of what I may gain from my solar panels per day.
Hence the project of building a hard-top and installing a few additional panels on it just got +1 point to its priority.