It never does end does it?
I’m excited about having an autopilot again but I’m itching like crazy. I had to cut, grind, and re-shape the little bulk head I made for the linear drive to mount to. You can see the drive running horizontally at the top of the picture under my drill. I ran the vacuum as I was grinding fiberglass in my bedroom, but I still managed to get itching powder on everything. Remember itching powder from the joke shop when you were a kid, all it was was fiberglass powder, and its all over my room.
I need to go to Panama city on Monday to buy some mounting hardware and find a pulley for the new impeller pump for the little kubota. I’m getting really tired of Linton and will head to the San Blas soon. I was hitch hiking the other day and got picked up by the guy who owns San Blas Sailing, the local charter company. He is a really nice guy and I remember having a few beers with him years ago back in Cartagena, We may do some business. I really need to get paint on my old girl before i do anything like that. I didn’t think anyone would rob me with Splendid looking like she does but someone stole my dinghy anchor out of my dinghy. It was a really nice little Danforth. I gave away my other dinghy anchor a few months go and I’m bummed about it.
I don’t know if any of you are into Irish music or not but I’m listening to Live Ireland radio all day through my 3G connection, its cool. I know I’m not so cool, but its cool to me. It would be interesting to sail up there? My friends next door are from Ireland and pointed out some good anchorages on my charts. The water doesn’t get too cold as it’s in the Gulf Stream, it may be an option if I decide to sail North and East as opposed to West.
I would like to get my water maker situation figured out. I want to run a water maker and refrigerator off of the kubota and want everyone’s input. I can either try to run everything off of belts, or I can run one hydraulic pump off of a belt and run everything hydraulically, or I can run everything 110 and through the inverter. What happens if the inverter dies? I guess I’m trying to figure out what will be most dependable and efficient, please, let me hear your two cents worth.
Anyway, I’m off to scratch, scratch, scratch, and maybe have a beer or three.
Cheers.
Sail far and live slow.
Alex
Published in Alex Dorsey
Okay guys, the first paid episode is up, go to the store at the top of the page. It is $1.39, can you believe PayPal takes .39. I want to know how the tech works, please give me some input on how easy or not the system is, it is supposed to be super easy to buy a video :)
neo.projectbluesphere.com/Store.aspx
Cheers
Alex,
Been a loyal follower of your website for some time now keeping up to date with all the ups and downs of life on the open water. Have just downloaded the new episode and it couldnt be simpler to do. An excellent idea and can’t wait for the next one..
Keep up the good work!!
Mike
S/V Seanome
London UK
Mike,
Thanks for the input. I made 9 sales today which is 12 beers at Hanz’s place. Video = beer, i like the concept :) The next video is allready underway and will be more involved.
When I was in the store I also started the charter raffle again 30 tickets at $50.00 each. Every ticket is a one in 30 chance of winning, drawing is May 1st. ? I’ll throw in both of my downloadable films and online episodes per ticket..
Cheers
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this dilemma myself. At this moment I’m leaning towards powering my water maker and refer off AC motors, with the AC supplied by genset. In a pinch I can use inverter, but normally I’d just use the genset. Will build water maker large enough to supply all my water needs in just a few hours of running. Ditto refer. I don’t like belting accessories off main engine, to me that’s why God invented gensets. My view anyways.
Thomas
Hey Alex, here’s my two pence worth (that’s about 3 cents!)
We went the 12V route. So our refer and our freezer, and our watermaker are all 12 volts. We get the freezer (a cool blue unit) down to about -8F on about 50AH per 24 hours, and the freezer can hold 6 months worth of fresh provisions.
We decided on 12 volt so that we can run the boat for ‘free’ on solar and wind, and also are able to leave the freezer and fridge on even if we leave the boat for a week as there is no need to have to run an engine, weather permitting.
We have an Air-X and 320 watts of solar (we are looking to double this as cash permits). We might also look for a forgen wind gen which gives about 50AH per day in very low winds that won’t spin the air-x
Hope this adds to the debate.
Slainte
Colin and Nichola
Emerald
Falmouth UK
Colin, thanks for the input. I must say 12v is my first choice as well. I don’t like having 110 on the boat unless it is coming out of the inverter. I guess i am over complicating my thoughts as i have an engine driven refrigeration system and may need to just rip it out and forget about it. The question is the watermaker. Can I get a 12v motor to run the cat pump? I suppose so. And i could run the kubota as it was running.
My biggest concern is having a good water source that I can trust. We are coming into the dry season in a few weeks and we often get river water which i have never had a problem with. I don’t treat my water with anything as I’d rather get a parasite then drink bleach on a daily basis, I’m not so into having chemicals in my water.
Man it is raining hard :)
just discovered the liveireland link… that’s kinda awesome! and the price is spot on) I’ve been limping along with http://www.pandora.com and just punch in old blind dogs it’s a good mix, it sounds a bit newer. you can listen to 40 hours free on pandora or just bite the bullet at $36 for the year commercial free 24/7 music… I’m going with the 40 hours free but it’s usually just at work so…)
still no boat and I’m sure the wife would kill me if I chucked house payment/preschool payment into boat payment(… I’m still holding out for 6 very specific numbers
Hey Alex,
I just purchased your down load. it cost me $1.46 Canadian. That is good for a beer and a half. It was great to see your life aboard Splendid. Keep the video down loads coming.
Sail far
Curtis