going simple or insane...

A very important question, hardly a surprise but still, and in the "Priorities priorities!" department...

I'm currently in the middle of some electrical work on the boat and I can't think of a better way of enforcing the KISS program on the boat systems front.

The idea of adding such things as air-conditioning, electronics that don't earn their keep, and replacing perfectly good instruments with newer more complicated versions that are even more prone to failure is just insane.

That said, judging from the current CPAC crap fest there's no shortage of bat-shit crazy floating about these days.

Listening to some 60s girl groups coverage

So it goes...

Better than Blue Sea?

Regarding profit, not just another war story, and in the "a living wage" department...

They had me at trouble lights for failed fuses.

Also, the fact that they are quite a bit cheaper than Blue Sea is happy making.

Listening to Sweet Crude

So it goes...

on the subject of 12 volt working just fine.

This gave me a nightmare, mainstream bat-shit crazy viewed from abroad, and in the "Just what we don't need or want" department...

Some while back, I had a couple of 50-watt solar panels fail. What can I say but shit happens. As the seller of the solar panels refused to honor their warranty as, apparently, they defined "Lifetime Warranty" as being until the panels died. 

I'm still pissed off.

Anyway, since I planned to try and fix the panels but never quite got around to doing it, our electrical budget has been a bit compromised. Not an overly problematic state of affairs as we just cut back a kiss on our consumption.

Which, I'll point out, is not all that hard. We've been doing the boat ting since the days before solar panels when 99% of our power aboard was produced by an Ampair Aquair water/air unit like this.

It worked just fine.

That said, in those days we didn't have anything electrical on board except for instruments, a few meager interior lights, and navigation lights. Our VHF radio and our RDF at the time operated on AA batteries. Still, it worked pretty well while sailing in the Med, Africa and over to the Caribbean.

These days, we're still a 12-volt boat where electrics are concerned. I'll admit we do have an immersion blender that operates with a 300-watt inverter  but I think it's been about five years since it's been used. Which, I suppose, makes me the last person anyone should seek guidance from on an integrated solar/diesel system that would power a large village or a couple on a catamaran who wants to be comfortable and sail with all mod cons.

I mention all this as the next up project is redoing the solar mounting aboard "So It Goes" and part of that is to redo some of the wiring into a more cohesive (dare I say elegant?) loom. Hopefully it will make a bit more sense than the ad hoc assemblage that has somehow grown into a 10-gauge spiderweb which lays in wait for the unprepared.

The thing is, that 12 volts makes sense for folks who don't want to complicate their lives to the extent that it gets in the way of the simpler life some of us were hoping to find in sailing.

Oh yeah, if anyone sees an Aquair in good shape selling for cheap drop me a line...

Listening to St. Paul & The Broken Bones

So it goes...

Something I've been thinking about...

Some thoughts on compassion, a case of interest, and Randy gets into Tango mode...

Yesterday our propane bottle ran out of propane, which was a non-problematic affair. The good news being that our spare tank was full, so changing over took only a few minutes. The bad news was that it was raining, so I got wet. That said, there was nothing on the stove cooking where a momentary pause might create havoc.

The 20 pound bottle lasted 96 days, providing most of the meals consumed in that time period at a cost of only $0.26 dollars a day.

I’ve been trying to get my head around the idea of induction cook-tops on boats. Researching induction cooking on boats is problematic as most info is about how great having an all-electric-boat with scant discussion on how it really works.

Some say I’m way behind in terms of tech, and my life would be better with an induction stove. Mostly citing the price of propane as I could run an induction stove on solar.

While I suspect some can run an induction stove on solar, it requires more solar panels and a larger battery bank.

I love solar panels and readily admit they are a needful addition to any cruising boat. Still one only has enough room to deploy them, which limits the number of watts available.

The scary part for me is the god-awful amp draw of the induction cooker combined with an inverter. One test I’ve seen boiling just enough water to make one cup of coffee came out at eight amp-hours.

With that sort of draw, I shudder to imagine what sort of mayhem a large pot of chili will impact on my battery levels. Combine that thought with the time it takes my solar panels to replace that amount of energy and I get nervous.

Worse yet, I’ve had bad luck where inverters are concerned. As an inverter is a needful chunk of an induction system, I’d feel the need to have at least a spare inverter as a backup. The same might go for the actual induction cooker as well, since longevity of home electronics aboard cruising boats can be a dicey affair.

Suddenly, the whole idea of an induction cooker looks a lot less like the best thing since sliced bread anymore.

At least for the moment I'll be sticking with my ENO propane cooker as it does everything I want at $0.26 dollars a day.

Listening to the Iron Leg Radio Show

So it goes...

A few thoughts on the all-electric boat...

Some good points on the subject of accountability, a ski/climate artwork that says it all, and in the "Just how stupid can you get" department...

Every once in a while I get the urge to try something I think is pretty stupid and I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

For instance, take the all-electric sailboat as an example. At first glance, it makes sense. I’d love to get rid of fossil fuels aboard “So It Goes”. The idea of being able to generate all the required energy with solar is the stuff of dreams I’ve had for decades.

I follow just about everything I can get on various schemes and tech that makes the idea of an all-electric boat doable.

The problem I keep running into is that a lot of the folks doing the all-electric boat gig keep their actual power use compared to power harvested information to themselves. Add in sorting your way through various instruments, refrigeration, stoves, inverters, watermakers, washing machines, appliances, and other bits of electrical draw consume in the real world.

Concerning efficiency of devices, there is very little information available. Electrical systems suffer from the ‘death of a thousand cuts’ syndrome, where a system that should work fails when a surplus of minor losses combine and result in unplanned for loads which can cause failure.

Which is a roundabout way saying that what I'd like is a whole lot more information and some serious studies on how, for instance, a modern electric stove would compare to either an alcohol, kerosene, diesel, or propane stove.  The same goes for pretty much any system that one is considering to add or replace with an electric alternative. Anybody seen such a beast?

Some more thoughts on electrical systems soonish...

Listening to David Byrne and Yo Le Tengo cover a Yoko Ono song

So it goes...

Not a bad idea at all...

A transatlantic voyage of note, what you can do with salmon sperm, and the word of the day is D-R-O-U-G-H-T...

This is kind of neat.

No idea what the pricing is but there is more info on the FLIN Solar website as well as a lot of great ideas for the intrepid DIY practitioner.

Listening to a favorite song

So it goes...

What stuff costs battery edition...

A thing about language, a suggestion from EBM, and about that gas in your dinghy...

It's come to the point where I have to replace the batteries aboard "So It Goes" and I've been doing a lot of research on what to replace them with. 

Just about everyone is telling me that I should go with Lithium and their talking points seem to have merit and at first glance they are somewhat compelling. According to just about everyone Lithium has twice the usable energy, charges faster, and when the overall life of the battery is factored in less expensive than lead-acid.

Almost too good to be true.

A resource I follow where lithium batteries are concerned regularly tears down commercial lithium batteries and far too often the build quality appears to be somewhat problematic. Another resource who is big on harvesting surplus cells has been something of an eye opener as the whole act of harvesting cells is based on batteries that, for one reason or another, have failed.

Throw in the fact that while companies producing (or just rebranding) batteries have warranties that don't quite reflect the longevity they're claiming.

Warranties tend to say a lot about how good a product actually is so I take them quite seriously. Then again I recently had a couple of "Lifetime Guaranteed" solar panels which failed and the vendor refused to replace them because the company that built them was no longer in business. Which makes me wonder how many of the lithium battery sellers of today will still be around in five or ten years.

I'll also point out that the battery in the computer I'm writing this on is no longer accepting a full charge and cuts out on a regular basis and it's only a couple of months old. Fact is, battery failure on this computer has been an ongoing issue and I don't think a single battery has made it to the end of a warranty cycle. As it is, I'm replacing the computer battery about twice a year which does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling where lithium batteries are concerned.

My current 400+ amp hour battery bank has lasted six years nine months and is still working albeit in a tired and grumpy manner. While we could get by for another year it makes sense to replace them now where I can get a good price on new batteries in a place where the old bank will be recycled and not just dumped in a landfill.

The decision to buy lead acid golf cart batteries is mainly about the fact that I have experience with lead acid and know they will work for the next six years or so without any issues as they're simple and don't have a lot to go wrong. Lithium, on the other hand, has complicated circuits (BMS) which can fail and are not user repairable. Several people I know advised that installing a second lead-acid bank as a back up to a lithium bank would be no bad thing which does not exactly fill me with confidence.

But what about the cost? The new bank (four six-volt golf cart batteries) is going to cost $732, including free delivery. Using the current bank as a model means I should expect to get around eighty-one months of service and the cost to the budget will come to about $9.04 a month.

I suspect, that eighty-one months from now when it's time to replace the new batteries, there will be a newer, hipper, and better battery chemistries that do not require rare-earth materials to build while lithium will have become passe.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings...

Listening to Petite Amie

So it goes...

making my head hurt...

A new low for Florida, what you might not know about the beef in your burger, and in the "Interesting and important but not exactly surprising" department...

Talking with a friend about various strategies for evolving the electrical system aboard "So It Goes" it seemed that just about all of the various sources of information seem to have vested interests in what they're talking about.

Especially where batteries and power storage are concerned.

The more I look into the whole conundrum of various battery chemistries and real world usage of said batteries I find very little real information and a whole lot of hype. 

It's frustrating.

But more on this subject soonish as I have some thankfully simple rigging work to do.

Listening to Tim Bluhm & the Coffis Brothers

So it goes...

Some DIY wonderfullness...

Some needful reading, a free book I'm looking forward to reading, and did someone say "Tall bike"...

Atom Voyages (always a great resource) with just about everything you need to know to build your own Atom Solar Tracker. 

Listening to Brandi Carlile

So it goes...

An interesting budget wind generator project...

A needful read, an apt analogy, and why you might just want to brush up on your sextant skills...

Here's a simple wind generator project from Low-tech Lab you might want to check out.

 

There is also an excellent tutorial here.

Listening to the Black Pumas

So it goes... 

On not being able to fix something...

A list of infamy, something on the subject of renewable energy, and a cartoon for those who've not been paying attention...

My Ryobi generator died this weekend due to a thrown rod.

A statement which, I suppose, will have folks sending emails telling me that if I had only bought the more expensive Honda I would not be facing the need to repair or replace the Ryobi because "you get what you pay for".

As it happens, the Ryobi generator ($500) has outlasted my last two Honda generators ($1000 each) combined at half /quarter the cost so, in my thinking, the Ryobi is a hell of a lot better than the Honda.

Of course, the problem with both the Ryobi and Honda generators is that they are simply not designed to be repaired and the cost of most major DIY repairs will cost more in time and parts than the price of replacing the generator with a new one. I won't go in to just how stupid and wasteful that sort of consumerist BS actually is but you might want to think about it.

Worse is the fact that getting the information you actually need to repair either a Honda, Ryobi, or whatever generator you might have is ultra-problematic because most companies don't want you to be able to repair their goods and seem to be dead set against selling you the needful replacement part required... Seriously, you'd think I was asking for defense secrets rather than trying to just find out what model engine my generator uses and where/how to buy parts for it.

On "So It Goes" I've made a real effort to keep stuff off the boat that cannot be user maintained and repaired or, at least, only require some common expertise such as machining or access to readily available parts or components.

Which leads us to the question about what generator I'll be replacing the Ryobi with. My first consideration is does the generator have a real shop manual. Secondly, is there solid information on the various components and are said components actually available or are they only available to affiliate repair centers?

The late Larry Pardey once said something along the lines that "If you can't fix it, it doesn't belong on your boat!" and that advice makes a whole lot of sense.

Rant over.

Listening to the Waterboys

So it goes...

My current thinking on batteries...

A bit of historical perspective, so much for being a stand-up guy, and the 2021 Pacific Puddle Jump placed on hold...

Aboard "So It Goes" we have a battery bank comprised of four 6V Trojan T-105 225 amp hour golf cart batteries which gives us about 450 amp hours at 12 volts. As it happens a 450 amp hour bank is just fine for our current needs living in the tropics where we have a goodly amount of sun.

I mention this for a couple of reasons as the batteries are getting somewhat long in the tooth by lead-acid standards at almost six-years old and I keep getting a lot of folks asking me when I'm going to jump on the Lithium bandwagon.

At the moment, I'm still a fan of flooded lead acid chemistry as, so far at least, they work great and I've had zero issues with the Trojans. Which is not to say I don't like the idea of Lithium batteries but, at the moment, they are quite expensive and I have not yet seen any long term reviews on their performance/longevity.

I do, however, have far too much experience with Lithium computer batteries which seem to fail like clockwork after six months of use which somewhat colors my perception of the claims of Lithium longevity in a negative way.

Still, I do keep my eye on Lithium batteries and this video caught my attention...

 

Yeah, $433. for a 280 amp hour battery is a seriously good price and works out to a kiss less than $1.55 an AH. Currently the best price I've seen on Trojan T-105s is $188 which comes to about $1.68 per AH at 12 volts. Keep in mind that switching to Lithium would also entail a new charger and purchasing a BMS or two so, I expect, the golf cart batteries would still come out a kiss less expensive in the long run.

But, as our current battery bank is still quite sprightly considering its age, I'm content to just keep monitoring the battery market and see what comes up in the next year or so.

Listening to The War And Treaty

So it goes...

A galley fix...

What the smart money is thinking, on clarity in language, and in the "What's a fish worth?" department...

For the last couple of weeks, our fridge (an Alpicool CX50) has not been a happy camper. It's been running too much, pulling too many amps, as well as, to my mind, been running hotter than it should be. An obvious addition to the must sort out and fix list.

Yesterday it pretty much quit working as normal and kept kicking into its various trouble codes on the LCD screen. The problem got worse just before bedtime when it gave five furtive beeps and shut down completely. When we tried to turn it back on there was, apparently, no power to the fridge with no lights, and no LCD screen.

Bummer. So I went to bed with images of fixing the fridge today running around my head which is not an asset to a good night's rest.

This morning we plugged the fridge back in only to find we again had power but the compressor would not do its thing. It just went from trying to start and then getting one of the various problem codes. Worse yet, in my opinion, was that we had an apparent intermittent fault (the power going out) somewhere in the mix which always adds to the fun and frolic level of a job.

Researching possible fixes on the web was problematic to the the max as the Alpicool site had no real info and everyone else tended to suggest that when encountering problems with inexpensive Chinese-made fridges that the best course of action is to throw it away and buy a more expensive Chinese-made fridge to replace it.

My main problem was that the error code was for low battery voltage but that seemed wrong as our batteries have a good charge and all of the lights and LCD were bright so we obviously had enoough voltage. Everything else seemed in good shape so we seemed to have a conundrum of sorts...

I'd checked everything, well almost everything. I had not checked the internal in-line fuse because we obviously had power. Well, except for when we didn't have any power last night.

Yeah, it had to be the fuse. The fuse was the intermittent fault.

A few minutes later I had the fuse out and it most certainly had issues. It was not blown but it was not passing all the juice through to the compressor though still passing enough to make the lights and LCD screen operate, except last night when it was not working at all.

So, a new twenty-cent blade fuse later and the compressor is purring away quietly, making things cold again.

Listening to The War and Treaty

So it goes...

A navlight you'll want to check out...

A finding of note, some unsurprising assholery, and in the "This made my day" department...

I've mentioned before (here and here)we have an inexpensive tricolor/anchor/strobe light that we bought from MarineBeam and after more than three years of everyday use, and it's still working just fine in spite of weathering several tropical storms and a couple of category 5 hurricanes.

Color me still very impressed with its performance.

I mention this because it seems that MarineBeam has added an improved light to their line which features a sealed housing.

Considering how well our unsealed MarineBeam light has performed the addition of an affordable sealed version brings the word "Bombproof" to mind.

Color me even more impressed.

Listening to Kate Rusby

So it goes...

a frugal project you might want to look at...

Not exactly surprising but it does rankle, a REMF's blather, and a blog well worth reading...

Well, now this is kinda cool as well as a good example that no matter what you need for your boat there's almost always a reasonable and affordable DIY solution.

Listening to John Sebastian

So it goes...

on why I'm not throwing away good batteries...

Scary news regarding the Panama Canal, some interesting progress on identifying tsunami earthquakes, and an excellent point in cartoon form...

I've been thinking, rather a lot in fact, about new batteries for "So It Goes" and thinking about Lithium batteries in particular.

I like that Lithium batteries that are lighter. I like the fact that Lithium batteries charge faster than lead acid. I also like the idea that you get to use more than 50% of the battery's energy without shortening the life of the battery. I also really like the idea that Lithium batteries are supposed to outlast lead acid by a huge factor.

So, when it's time to replace the still-working-just-fine Trojan golf cart batteries aboard SOG I'll be replacing them with Lithium... Right?

Well, actually, there are a couple of things I worry about where Lithium is concerned. The first is the cost factor Lithium batteries are, as we speak, expensive. Sure I've read all of the arguments that Lithium batteries last so long that Lithium is actually cheaper that lead acid once you factor in longevity but I am yet unconvinced that some of those longevity claims may depend on factors other than chemistry.

For instance, while some of the Lithium battery sellers are touting awesome guarantees, will those companies be around to honor them five years from now? My laptop which runs on lithium batteries goes through batteries on a pretty regular basis of needing a new battery every nine months or so. They're supposed to last a lot longer but either a single bad cell or the BMS will malfunction and all of a sudden I'm buying another expensive battery for my computer.

Ever wondered just why there is such a big market in used Lithium chemistry battery cells?

Luckily, I have at least two more good years left in my Trojans, so I can afford to wait for costs to come down on Lithium and get a better handle on whether or not the companies currently doing business will still be around.

In the meantime I'll also be putting together some smaller Lithium batteries for a couple of projects I have in mind to see if the DIY line of thought makes sense for a house bank. For those of a similar mindset you might want to check out Jehu Garcia's channel for a cornucopia of Lithium cell DIY wonderfullness.

Listening to Balún

So it goes

What people are talking about in Paris...

Greenwashing in aid of profits, an entertaining/educational app, and in the "Just in time for Christmas" department...

For a long time I've been pondering where or not to buy a Ryobi electric weed-whacker with the intention of morphing it into a dinghy propulsion device. As it happens, apparently, one of the big interest items at the Paris Boat Show is this electric godille (sculling oar). Bateaux magazine has an interesting write up on the motor as well.



Of course, being a product aimed at folks on boats it is a whole lot more expensive ($1600) than it should/could be. That said it is a pretty good proof of concept for me to get that Ryobi weed-whacker and get to doing.

Listening to New Order

So it goes...

OK, color me impressed...

Stuff you need to know, important notes on the current state of science, and some pictures of history being made...

A solar panel mount that caught my attention.

More about it here.


Listening to some variations on a groove

So it goes...

A DIY wind generator...

Fraudulent assumptions, EBM points us to something very scary, and turning the tide on plastics...

How about a 3D printable wind generator?

Listening to Tropa Magica

So it goes...

Some LED and radio'AIS news of note...

Zandar making sense, some needful advice, and a very good piece on Burning Man...

Panbo has some important news and information if you have LED lighting aboard and use VHF or AIS. Check it out.

Listening to an album of DEVO covers

So it goes...