solar panels
More Solar Progress
We are moving towards a massive 2,415watts of solar
Progress
Electrical Progress
Due to a strong, cold North Easterly blowing straight at our companionway we didn't feel like working with the main hatch open all day. Instead, we collected some stuff from our Storage Container. Then Jane started working on the first Dyneema Chainplate Loop for the main mast. Certainly
Electric
Multiple different Raspberry Pi5 computers on board
We will have four main Raspberry Pi 5 computers in use on Vida. Chosen for low power consumption, low cost and adaptability. Two are assembled and the main software installed (Home Assistant and Navigation). One is mostly assembled and waiting for an mvme card before installation (Firewall). The last is
Appliances
Starting towards a Smart boat
We've found the Smart Boat Innovations YouTube channel really helpful and encouraging. The technique of bringing boat data into Home Assistant is absolutely brilliant. It gets us away from expensive Marine technology into the world of free/open source software and standards. So I'm taking our
Electric
Stanchion and Solar progress
We are really excited with the progress on our stanchions and what we have learnt means we have redesigned our aft solar "arch" yet again (I've lost count, this might be the 10,000th version). Stanchions and Gates This was our first stanchion base. The carbon
Electric
9 inspiring years
Sailing Uma have put out a video celebrating and summarising 9 years since they bought Uma. They are one of the most inspiring couples around so if you haven't seen them before this would be a great place to start.
Electric
Shore Power electrical progress
Feels like solid progress for an all electric boat today 😊 Our shore power is now connected to a waterproof 32 amp Victron socket in the cockpit. From there it goes through a Victron 7000watt Isolation Transformer and then our Victron Multiplus II (combined 5000watt Inverter and 70 amp battery charger)
Electric
Storm Franklin and cheap drawers.
When we saw the forecast for Storm Franklin yesterday we decided that gusts over 60mph were going to prevent sleep and be quite scary. So we left the boat before lunchtime while the wind was "only" gusting to mid forties. On our way back now as the wind
Electric
An electric adventure today
Two weekends ago we sold our Citroën van. Last weekend we collected our new car, a 2016 Nissan Leaf electric car. Tonight, after an evening work meeting, we will go on an adventure in it to the boat. I fully charged it overnight (normally we are only charging to 80%
Electric
Battery bank installation progress
Today has included a huge amount of lifting and moving. A large part of that was lifting all 8 batteries on board. You can see the preparation for this in Low down progress First battery bank has a nearly finished box (needs final epoxy coating and painting plus a lid)
Electric
Autopilot progress
On Friday, while preparing to fit the backing plate in the cockpit locker we decided to remove the drive unit for the original Neco autopilot. This is a beefy electric motor that uses a chain drive onto one of the shafts of the Whitlock steering system. From all we can
Electric
For sale: Victron Phoenix Inverter Compact 2000VA
Now that we are definitely going 48 volt for all our battery banks we are selling our 2 new and unused 12 volt Victron Inverters. Here is the eBay link (for the 1st, selling them 1 at a time). Details of these at the Victron website