Breeze On

This is a guest post from George to provide details regarding the latest installation activities regarding our quest for solar power for Breeze On. As the winter weather ended here in MD, I was finally able to remove the shrink wrap from Breeze On. Yeah...Spring is finally here. Once we had access to the boat, I installed the bimini. My friend and chief consultant on this project, Ray and I then dry fit the solar panels on the bimini top. During this process we decided that it would be better to turn the panels 90 degrees from the way they show in the picture above and add another bow or stainless steel bar for additional support between the panels. Our concern was that the bimini might flex too much in windy conditions with only the front and back supports. I contacted the local sail & canvas guy and he reluctantly agreed to do the job - they are very busy now, as you can imagine. It sounded like it would take them a week or two to get the 1" stainless tubing and bend...

Every Sunday afternoon George and I sit down and review our boat projects list. We talk about each project, what steps we need to take, how much progress we have made what we need to do next. At this point we are at a "hurry up and wait" stage on most of the projects. Breeze On is covered with shrink wrap at the moment and we need to wait until the shrink wrap comes off before we can start making measurements and finalizing decisions. SOLAR PANELS We have purchased most of the supplies for the solar panels including: four Renogy 100 watt semi flexible panels, all of the cables, connectors, and two Blue Sky controllers.   George chose the Blue Sky controllers over the Renogy brand because the Blue Sky controllers are "smart" and therefore maximize the amperage going into the batteries. They also have a display which tells us the battery voltage, solar panel output and charge input to the batteries.   We have decided to attach the panels to the bimini with Velcro usi...

It is hard to believe that we plan to have Breeze On back in the water in a mere two months. The creek is frozen solid, as is the Choptank River and much of the Chesapeake Bay. It has been quite a winter. I shouldn't complain, it has been much easier for us than it has for those in the Northeast. The view from our deck this morning.   Mom admiring the same view last June. In the meantime, we are still working on the solar panels and other winter projects.   Posted with Blogsy

We have been working on our list of winter projects while we are not sailing. One of the more complicated items on the list is figuring out the solar panels. We have to figure out how much power we need, which solar panels to buy, what equipment we need to go with them and where and how to attach them. George spent a few weeks investigating how much power we need. He listed all the items on the boat that draw power, how many amps each item used per hour then estimated how hours a day each item was on. He totaled them up and came up with 150 amps while sailing and anchoring and 218 amps when sailing 24 hours a day. We don't currently have a monitor to tell us what we actually draw so these numbers are just estimates. I have been practically no help with this project because I have had a mental block against all things electrical. No matter how many times it has been explained to me, I haven't been able to understand it. Until this week, that is. A member of the fantastic Face...

I set up a companion Facebook page for the blog. It contains links to the blog posts and lots of photos that were not posted on the blog. I am in the process of uploading photos from our trip from Mamaroneck, NY to Cambridge, Maryland. I have been challenged by the process but I will continue to add more photos. Who knew it wouldn't be a simple process to add photos to a Facebook page from iPhoto on a Mac?? When sailing season picks up again for Breeze On I will post to the Facebook page more frequently than I write blog posts. Please l ike the page if you want to see the updates. Thanks!   Posted with Blogsy

I like to be organized. I like to put things where they belong so I don't have to spend time looking for them. (I know what you are thinking...can you spell OCD?) Being organized is a bit of a challenge on a boat since the storage spaces are limited and often odd-shaped. Before we started sailing Breeze On I took measurements of all of the storage areas and purchased some storage units that would fit. I found that my things still weren't very organized because they would shift when we sailed. I recently had the thought that I could custom make my own flexible storage units to fit the odd shaped spaces on our boat. I found some instructions on Pinterest to make my own vinyl boxes . I used lightweight vinyl that I purchased from Joanne Fabrics, measured my storage spaces and the I wanted to store. I cut the pieces of vinyl and sewed them together. I was happy with the results. Next up, larger storage boxes to use for my clothes.   Next season we will see if these vinyl boxes hel...

We had our last cruise early last month. Breeze On was pulled from the water a few weeks ago.     She is sitting right next to the marina building because they are going to install rub rails for us this winter. Remember my disastrous docking ? Well, we decided to have rub rails installed after that experience. Even though we are much better at docking now than we were then we believe they will be worth the price for us. Also on the to do list for the winter is making decisions about solar panels. We have been reading up on electricity and have quite a bit more research to do before we decide. We are currently leaning toward flexible solar panels that will zip onto the bimini. We have to decide how many amp hours we need and which solar panels to buy that will provide the power that we need. So, even though we are no longer sailing we are still thinking about sailing. The winter will be over before we know it and we will be back out there on the water.   Posted with Bl...