Ramblings
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Boat works 2025 – round 2
Friday I took yesterday off, so that I could get more than just a weekend to tackle the works that needed doing. The yard had confirmed earlier in the week that the engine had been removed, so one loaded (remembered the latter this time) car and we were off to Malahide for breakfast. We passed…
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Boat works 2025 – round 1
Blue Opal was scheduled to lift today at 10 am, so K and I came up the night before with bedding, replacement lithium battery (for the house bank), and a few other odds and ends. The drive up through Dublin was a right pain in the ass, with road works and long queues (due to…
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Boat works 2025 – prelude
Blue Opal was built in 1998, and has a Raymarine navigation electronics suite from that era. On our trip in 2021, I used an Android tablet (with OpenCPN and a few other bits) as a cockpit-based MFD-like tool for charts access etcetera. This didn’t work out too well, due to the power consumption of the…
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A new soldering iron
K asked me last year what I’d like as a present, and I pointed at a Fnirsi HS-02A soldering iron and a GAN USB-C power supply for it. Several months later, I’ve got around to actually trying it. Room temperature to 350 degrees C in under 10 seconds (according to the screen; I don’t have…
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Holiday 2024 – Dun Laoghaire to Girvan
An easy drive north, though working out how to get a 2024 Seat Leon reconfigured for miles per hour instead of kilometres per hour took longer than it should have – Enterprise apparently believe their customers do not need the manuals for the vehicle, and it wasn’t in the car. Stopped off in Belfast to…
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Responding to a Mayday Relay
The other Saturday, K and I decided to make the most of the warm weather in Ireland, and sailed to Killiney Bay, dropped the hook, and had lunch. As the tide turned, the movement became a bit uncomfortable, so engine on, anchor up, sails up, and we started heading back. Glorious wind and boat speed…