New Additions

George and I are continuing to work through our “to-do” lists. After spending an enjoyable month of visits from family and friends, as well as a brief trip to Baltimore, George got to work installing a new anchor and a Starlink system.

We decided we wanted a new anchor last winter after several challenging attempts to set the anchor in a grassy bottom. The Mantus anchor is similar in design to our former Manson Supreme anchor but the manufacturer claims it is much better with grassy bottoms. We certainly hope so. We had wanted to get a larger, heavier anchor but the largest that would fit happens to be the same weight as our former anchor.

We saw several cruising boats with Starlink systems while we were in the Bahamas last year. Everyone we spoke to loved the fact that the systems enabled them to be connected to the internet wherever they were—even offshore! We decided not to install one ourselves last fall because the company kept changing their terms of service and we wanted to wait and see what happened. The cruisers were installing systems that were meant for RVs and the systems were not authorized to be used offshore, or on a boat at all for that matter. In the past year Starlink has developed a program using the RV system that fits the needs of cruisers so we decided to go ahead and install one. It has been quite an involved project for George but has gone well, as far as boat projects go. He had to figure out how to install the dish so that it could freely move around—it is motorized and will move to find a satellite. The system runs on 110 volts and George converted it to run on 12 volts after watching numerous YouTube videos. The most helpful video was this one. Another website was also quite helpful. So far, everything seems to work as it should. We are most excited about having connectivity when we are offshore.

While we were in Baltimore a few weeks ago we noticed that our house bank batteries didn’t seem to be working as they should. The voltage dropped to low overnight and didn’t charge as high as it should during the day. After we returned home George had some local marine electricians take a look and they confirmed that the batteries should be replaced. The lithium ion batteries are only 6 1/2 years old and we had expected them to last ten years. It may be that they didn’t last as long as expected since we use the boat year round. In any case, we plan to replace them before we leave next month. The challenge will be to find batteries that provide an adequate level of power that will fit in the limited space we have. The electrician took measurements and will get back to us with a proposal next week.

Disconnecting the old anchor from the spinnaker halyard. We used the halyard to help lift the anchor onto the deck.

Carrying the old anchor of the boat. You may notice that George is wearing his Marriage Saver. Since I was operating the halyard we used the the Marriage Savers to communicate.