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So yesterday a catamaran was reversing off the marina pontoon with his dinghy tied to the stern. The dinghy painter went around one of the props. The wrap ripped the P bracket out leaving a 4" long hole in the bottom. They managed to get the boatyard to lift them up on the travel hoist to stop...

Yesterday we saw this phenomenon first hand. We have a pair of framed 180w panels on each port and starboard guardrail. So 2x180w each side. In addition, we have some nasty Renogy flexible panels that dont produce what they should but none the less, this set of 920w of solar did an instantaneous...

12 months ago I built a 24v 280Ah lithium battery (8x280Ah cells). This was to replace our 4xTrojan 105s (225Ah @24v). Since swapping over to lithium, we have changed how we use our batteries dramatically. We used to have 720w of solar and a Duogen wind/ hydro turbine. Just after converting to...

From the OCC Facebook page S/V IdaLina, an Arcona 460, sank earlier this week some 300 miles east of the Marquesas. IdaLina was the home of two Swedish OCC Members, Ingmar Ravudd and Katarina Bääth. In light conditions the solid aluminium rudder stock snapped below the quadrant and then the...

We happened to be heading up from Jolly Harbour to Falmouth yesterday. The superyachts were out racing. We passed one of the marks with all the boats heading our way. We managed to keep out of their way. Incredible to see Hetairos going past under full sail at 17.8kts. They gybed around the mark...

I guy we know was sailing from Antigua to Guadeloupe. One of the escape hatches popped out of the hull on passage. These hatches are about 9" above the waterline. They are toughened glass and glued in place. The idea being, that if the cat is inverted, you have a little hammer to break the...

Loo,kng forward to watching the start again. We have done this for the last couple of years. Great spectacle. You can follow on the YB tracker. We are anchored on the East coast of Antigua. It was good to watch the warm up race, 'around Antigua' from here. Mod 70s were doing about 20kts as they...

It's that time of year. Lots of boats visiting the Caribbeam and loads of charterers. A 50 Beneteau First came in to the anchorage. All very smart with stainless steel chain and a crappy Delta anchor. So far they are on their 6th attempt to anchor. My wife went over to speak to them to see if...

It's been about 12 months since I last cleaned the sludge out of the bottom of the diesel tank. My little fuel filtering system does a great job. I buy cheapo filters off Ebay and discard them at the end of the job. A one metre length of copper 8mm pipe goes down into the tank and can be bent to...

Sailing South from Antigua for the 42nm trip to Guadeloupe we ran over a fishing pot line. We were sailing in 2.2m, 7s interval seas and 25kts of breeze. White horses everywhere and no chance of spotting the 3 tiny white markers on the line 10nm offshore! We had deployed our Duogen (towed...

Lithium Prices Plummet As Global Supply Concerns Diminish | ZeroHedge

Thought it might be interesting to see how much solar people have and where they locate it. Over here in the Caribbean, lots of boats have a solar arch, but many also mount panels on the guardrails. Starter for ten. We are liveaboard on a 44 ft ketch. 4x180w solar panels on the guardrails with...

A friend has lithium batteries from Sterling. He has been using the default Sterling charge settings. He is having problems since he installed a high output Balmar alternator and regulator to charge the lithium. He has minimal solar, hence the alternator charging. The alternator is designed to...

Ten years ago we had our rig replaced. Since then we have done 37,000nm. We broke a strand on the babystay a couple of years ago, so whilst we were in the UK I replaced the babystay with dieform wire and stalok terminals. I survey the rig on regular basis. A couple of months ago I found a broken...

Last night we had tropical storm Brett go through. We were well to the North of it so only got the fringes of it. As a precaution, we set a second anchor in a V with our main anchor, a 30kg Spade. The second anchor, a Fortress FX55 was set on 3 metres of 10mm chain and 50 metres of 3/4" nylon...

Watching the approach of the storm this evening. We are in Antigua with 2 anchors set as the storm approaches. We are on the fringe with gusts in the 30kts range. Those to the South are in for 40 to 50kts. I saw photos of the anchorages in Le Marin, Martinique, packed with yachts. Glad we are North.

Watermakers are a serious investment for anybody setting off to live aboard full time in the Tropics, sailing an ocean, etc Many have chosen 12v watermakers as they have a low power demand. They are also complicated pieces of equipment with many moving parts and very expensive. They make...