The goal of SailBits is to tell a story about how technology and boating work together, to share ideas about projects, and help others learn from the experience.
I am excited to introduce a new family member – Rendezvous. She is a 1988 Ocean Alexander 420 sundeck motor yacht with lots of neat features and extras. After a whirlwind process of selling Grace, Rendezvous became part of our family in early November
With my LiFePO4 power design complete, I was excited to install and use the new system for most of this sailing season. The installation took longer than a traditional battery installation, and had more complexity, but turned out to be a fantastic setup for the longer trips I went on this summer.
Navigation lights on older boats are a great target for an LED upgrade. Recently I found LunaSea festoon LED bulbs and replaced mine.
After visiting Princess Louisa Inlet, one of the most picturesque places on the face of the earth, it was time to return home to Seattle. The journey from Pender Harbour back turned out to be much more difficult than getting there, but it also was just as memorable as the rest of the trip, and spawned ideas of future visits all through Canada.
I have always wanted to visit Princess Louisa Inlet, but have never had the right timing, boat, schedule, and everything else align until this year. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget, and I consider it one of the top 5 places I have ever visited – boat or not!
This year I finally made it to a place I have always wanted to see – Princess Louisa Inlet. The trip was an epic one – over 450 NM in only 17 days, and all done solo!
I have decided to move to a power boat after years of sailing. The decision was a hard one, but also an exciting one as it will enable more projects and testing on a bigger platform.
Setting up the MikroTik Groove to boost WiFi on your boat can be daunting. With a few quick steps you can get the Groove up and running quickly on your network.
Due to weight and features, I decided to convert my sailboat power system to LiFePO4. This article covers the design which settled on Victron components.
Since as long as I can remember, I’ve gotten motion sick on airplanes, in cars, and on boats. I have tried many different solutions to help reduce how sick I get, and the one that has worked for 15+ years for me reliably and easily is the ReliefBand.
Grace came with a factory prop when I purchased her – it was OK, but after 3 years of using that prop, I felt that I could get better speed and potentially other benefits.
In the last year I have had a number of issues with items in or on Grace’s mast. During a recent trip to Blake Island, the anchor light stopped working, and that was the last straw. It was time to dig deeper into fixing all of the issues.