Hi everyone,
This is our third winter living aboard Zen Again in the UK. The first two were in St Katharine's Dock in London. The water is cold here, but not as cold as the locked London marina.
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| The StarLink Terminal we don't have! |
Winter, Covid-19 lockdown and our intent to resume blue water cruising this year all motivate us to attack the to-do list. We've been busy!
- SatCom
- Floodlights
- Pots'n'Pans
- HF/SSB Accessories
- Engine as a Bilge Pump
SatCom
Sadly we don't have a StarLink system! Five years ago on arrival in the UK we sold our Iridium Go! since (1) we knew we wouldn't be using it in the UK and (2) we hoped something better would be available when we resumed cruising. Sadly StarLink (and others) are still a few years away from availability for marine use. So we bought a new Go!. Happily the price matched the sale of the old unit.
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| New Iridium Go! with 3 SIM cards |
We kept the original coax cable run from the goalpost/arch to the NavStation so didn't have that job to do. We did sell the original 'pigtail' cable. Sourcing a reasonable cost replacement was tricky and we ended up getting a £4 TMC to SMA adaptor and a £5 SMA to TMS9 pigtail, instead of the £50 Iridium pigtail.
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| Iridium Go! mounted in the NavStation |
We also sold the original antenna. There are now after-market alternatives and we bought a Scan unit. This saved us over £100. The mounting location isn't optimal but the 220WX weather station needs to be elevated and we don't want the assembly being blown over in gales!
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| Scan Antenna |
We'll be activating the Go! in a month or so, giving us a month for full tests before cruising resumes. Unlimited use of the 2400bps bandwidth costs US$140 per month. Let's hope competition (eg StarLink) offering FAR higher bandwidth for FAR less cost will cause Iridium to reduce their rates.
Floodlights
We've never had powerful floodlights or spotlights aboard Zen Again although we did on previous boats. We've relied on torches and head-torches but they just don't provide the same illumination. So we installed two power outlets in the cockpit.
The outlets use waterproof 3-pin Bulgin Buccaneer plugs and sockets - the same as for our autopilot drives. We installed them in the cover plates over our previous speaker locations.
We bought a pair of 70W combined flood/spot lights for £30. One is mounted on the goalpost between the solar panels. Its job is to illuminate the rig. We'll use that when reefing at night, and when we want to make ourselves more visible to traffic. The second is for handheld use. One of our broom sticks got shorter! These lights are awesome.
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| Rig Uplight |
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| Handheld SearchLight |
We also bought a pair of waterproof, 5W 'party lights', just for fun. They're controlled by IR to shine different colours or sequences. One is mounted to illuminate the stern. It can be left on while we're ashore to identify the boat in busy anchorages, during man overboard recovery, or just for fun.
Pots'n'Pans
The galley had a present at Christmas. New French-made Tefal Ingenio pots and pans. They nest, share a handle and are very light. They're excellent. We also bought a set of silicone cooking utensils to avoid scratches.
HF/SSB Accessories
The NavStation also had a Christmas present - a Heil Pro-Micro headset for our HF/SSB. This includes an adaptor cable for our IC-7300.
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| Heil Pro-Micro headset |
The headset doesn't integrate a PTT switch so I mounted one under the NavStation table. The location allows me to both hang on and operate the switch in a seaway. That'll work nicely during HF skeds.
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| HF Push To Talk switch |
Engine as a Bilge Pump
Zen Again has no single bilge to which water flows. Any water ingress stays where it enters - bow lockers, forepeak/saloon, cockpit locker or lazarette. Only water in the forepeak/saloon can sink her. We have two manually operated bilge pumps which draw from pickup points in the saloon. We also have the Blakes Lavac head in the forepeak which can act as a manual bilge pump. Wandering hoses attach to pickup points or the Lavac's bowl.
For some years we've thought about fitting a Y valve in the engine raw water inlet to allow the engine to become a bilge pump. This winter we finally did the work. The Y valve is mounted outside the engine bay for quick access, with the engine bay wall providing a good attachment point.
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| Ready to mount |
The location of the Y valve lengthened the path from thru-hull to the engine but provided a cleaner hose run, eliminating a chafe point. The bilge pickup hose must be kept full of water to avoid an air lock - the pump doesn't like sucking air. We have a straining non-return valve assembly at the end of the pickup hose. The weight of the fittings will keep the pickup submerged.
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| Bilge pick-up with straining non-return valve |
Testing proved that the system works nicely. At 2000 rpm it moves about 30 litres / minute. That's probably equivalent to a person with a bucket. And it will run for days unlike people and electric bilge pumps!
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| Ready for use |
The to-do list isn't empty yet. A few more jobs to do before sailing away!
