Stuck In Our Slip But We’re Not Complaining
I think Matt’s actually smiling because I promised to do the dishes once we start cruising.
As much are we are lucky to actually have a slip in Santa Cruz, we can’t get out of the north harbor until several weeks from now. The tides are very high & only low enough to get under the bridge around the hour of 4AM. -Which we might want to practice if there was actually wind out at that time. So we are using this time to stay & work on the boat. Not too upsetting, as we love our dock - due to the wonderful neighbors we have on it.
So what have we made progress on? -Cockpit panels, solar, internet & a galley improvements. It might not sound like a lot but they are all on the more involved project side.
This week’s post is a shortie. We have a new video out so I was pre-occupied with that. And we are basically trying to move all our “stuff” out of our house - without having to actually move out of our house. That is mostly mentally exhausting. I think my brain my be hitting a mental wall on this marathon to our departure date.
Look what I can do! Cockpit panels coming along!
Get to the boat & get to work!
Matt got a lot done. He started with setting up our new solar panels. -Which he explains below:
I installed two 200 watt solar panels for a total of 400W. I connected them in parallel and thru our Bouge MPPT charger and to our 12 volt battery bank (three new deep cycle 12Vs). The charger has bluetooth connection and I can track watt hours on an app. I unplugged from shore power and I'll report back as to what was produced in the days we've been away from the boat. It won't likely be as much as we can usually produce as the boom is creating shade in the middle of both panels. When anchored, we will likely tie it off to one side to use the rocker stopper anyway. We have another 400 watts of foldable panels that can be deployed to charge our spare battery or the starter if we accidentally wear it down while anchored out.
New solar! Zephyr, please don’t destroy these! Yeah, I’m sure he’s concerned…
Matt also installed an antenna:
I installed a Proxicast 7 in 1 antenna to the stern of the boat. It has two LTE, a GPS and four others that can be used for LTE or WIFI. I was annoyed at the lack of parts to install the 1 1/2 inch threaded base. The stainless tubing is not cheap or easy but I noticed that it fits really nicely into a fish rod holder so I used one that bolts onto the push-pit railing and cut out enough room for the seven wires and fed them thru an unused blower exhaust vent, (I still hate to drill holes in the boat so gladly avoided that). I was able to run them to my 12V LTE router and the wireless masthead receiver. I think I can use one with my HAM radio. Although will have to check on that one. I'll report back on the antennae after we have a chance to test it on anchor.
The new antenna. Hopefully we can be off-grid without really being off-grid. I mean, what would you do without our weekly blog & bi-monthly video?!
When most everyone has left the dock, the birdies come out. Very cool! Matt was able to capture these shots below:
OMG! I was trying to think of how we could cook underway. No-one makes pot holders, to keep pots in place, for our stove. Of course, Matt came up with an idea. I wouldn’t expect less. Once again, here’s Matt:
I ordered some bendable aluminum, armature wire and made a set of three pot holders to match our favorite three pots. Now we hope to be able to boil water and maybe even cook simple things while underway. I rarely use the word but I was absolutely delighted that it worked so well. It even worked better than I imagined! I can rock the oven around something violent and the pots stay in place.
Yay! At the very least, we can’t boil hot water underway.
I promise you, all these wires go to something important. However, if you want to know WHAT they go to, you will have to ask Matt.
We have a new video out this week! It might be a little less than exciting, but so is owning a boat, much of the time. It’s not all glamorous! Which, is why we decided to keep it real, rather than take off on some super-yacht. That’s right. We’re slogging it for the fans!
Click on the pic to see our latest stuff in action.
Productivity has been at an all time high. We might actually be ready by our scheduled departure date! But you would have to also ask the weather what its plans are.
Not getting up until I smell the breakfast being made by you & Daddy.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to go over to YouTube to check out our latest video! Wishing all of you a great week!
