Category: Sailing
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Maintenance round-up
I’m finally going to get Blue Opal out of Dublin Bay and the surrounds later this year, so it’s time to finish up a bunch of jobs. The sanitation hose from the toilet to the diverter valve has been replaced. The new hose (HT Sanipomp Extra) has a “vanilla scent”. It’s better than the smell…
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Refurbishing the wind transducer
Ever since I bought Blue Opal, the wind transducer has been a bit finicky. It had problems indicating low wind speeds, and would sometimes just stop spinning. I kind of ignored it, because I don’t need to know the wind speed most of the time – I just look at the water, the state of…
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False alarm leads to real problem (AIS, antennas)
In a previous post, I noted how the AIS sentences had caused me to think that the VSWR alarm was being triggered, but in fact they were inactive alarms. However, I decided to get a baseline SWR reading, and a fellow club member was able to meet me on board today to conduct some tests.…
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AIS alarm sentences redux
Back in 2020, I posted about the alarm sentences for the B600s AIS transceiver by Alltek Marine. While on the boat this weekend, I was monitoring the NMEA sentences while testing some new software, and I noticed that the sentences were still showing up, and the AMEC app on the tablet was also saying “Error”.…
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Brightwork
While tidying Blue Opal yesterday, I noticed that her clock and barometer were looking rather dull. A bit of Peek, an hour in the workshop, and a modicum of effort has lead to them looking a lot better. Thereโs a few bits of Peek left in the cracks, but I donโt have a spare toothbrush…
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Adding solar power to Blue Opal
I’ve been planning to add solar power to Blue Opal for a year or more now, and I’ve finally got around to doing it. A combination of a Phaesun Mare Flex 55W panel (archive), and a Votronic MPP 250 solar regulator (archive) are pretty much all I needed to order from SVB to make it…