I’ve never thought that I would be so happy to see the end of a year, but I’m so glad that 2020 is over.
We had a hose failure in the fresh-water cooling system on the engine when out sailing on the bay with our granddaughters back in November, 2020. Did a quick-fix and got back to the dock without too much drama. While fixing that I ended up replacing much of the fresh-water and sea-water cooling systems. finally finished all of that in March, 2021.
Decided it’s time to put some solar back onto Duet this year, so I’ve been working on getting everything set up. I’ve installed battery monitoring and solar charging equipment that will let me monitor the systems via bluetooth on my cell phones & tablets. I’ve come up with a method of mounting a couple of large panels on a horizonal pole on the back that runs between the vertical poles that hold the radar and the wind generator. Found a pretty good deal on two 415 watt panels and should have them mounted in the next few weeks. They should provide lots of power as well as some additional shade on the helm for whoever’s driving the boat. They’re pretty big panels, total area for 2 panels is 80 inches square. For details you can check out the Geek Corner
We also removed the bimini and brought it back up to Reno so we could have it repaired locally. While the boat was for sale in Florida the people maintaining it did not have the topping lift* adjusted correctly so the boom was riding against the top of the bimini and wore about a 3 foot hole in it. In addition, over the years the clear “inspection window” that is in the center of the back of the bimini had gotten to where you couldn’t see anything. So the local canvas maker patched the hole with a much more durable material (in case the boom were to ride against it again) and also replaced the inspection window so we can see through it again, which may be quite useful once we get the solar panels installed. So our “refreshed bimini” is back on the boat.
* (The topping lift is a line that goes from top of mast to the end of the boom, holding it up while there’s no sail on it)
I’ve also been looking into replacing our refrigeration system (which really hasn’t ever worked, we’ve been using a portable unit) but haven’t been able to get any quotes from dealers in the bay area that sell the system that I want.
We may be moving the boat south to Long Beach, LA or Newport Beach so we can do some sailing around Catalina, anyone interested in a trip from San Francisco to southern California this season? A few more details in our occasionally updated “The Plan” document.
Thanks for checking in, looking forward to a better year now that things are opening up after Covid.
Dean & Cathy
