Surprise  I came in on Friday, Powered up fresh water pump and after half an hour found  water on the floor. Appeared the accumulator tank is leaking. next day visited West marine and took new one (seaflo) then replaced. On Marina I am really happy with new marine, little hanging after 34 hour driving and finding "surprise"  always helps. Mast cabling, Radar check. Tide up wiring in the head. Put ceiling panel and trim back.   Wired and check radar, sure nothing to check in marina - a lot of reflections but it is working! Inverter battery charger. Installed Vectron 25A charger, routed wired,  behind the panel. Still need to connect 110V line to it and install charge blocking relay in case in 110V system works from inverter. ;-) Lightning grounding Routed lightning grounding 4AWG cable from the mast to grounding plate under the black water tank. For now, wire just hangs from the top, later, I plan to make wood trim to hide it appearance  a little. It looks i...

  Kemah Boardwalk marina docks at night

Small electronics design #1 Indicators brightness control  When I made my breaker/switch i added LEDs to indicate active circuits for better visibility.  But after two passages I found a problem, indicator LEDs are ok in day time, but WAY TOO BRIGHT at night. so I made small electronic board fixing the issue.  It supposed to dim indication in 1:2000 ratio buy controlling negative side (common) of the LEDs by PWM. I used small microelectronic to be able to set what ever ratio without necessity to change components on the board if I need to change. Board has 4 wires connected.  1- common wire (negative side, cathode) for LEDS 2- 12V power (about 0.01mA power consumption) 3- Nav lights power (signal to switch LEDs to low brightness mode) 4- Negative 12V (ground)  Schematic Diagram (total components cost about $5 including PCB) #2 Mast top Tri-color/Anchor light control This project fixes two problems  Is using 2 wires to mast top to control combined Light inst...

24 small things was done in 2 weekend days Radar installed    Mast Check mast longitudinal angle. Portside lower shrouds - fix pin on spreaders root. during stepping mast up pin holding lowers on port side slide out of the intended position. I had to easy lowers and push it back to place. Install VHF antenna and test SWR - (Measured SWR 1.3). Just put antenna back to place. Install radar to the mast. Simple, but it the bracket appeared slightly deformed and rear holes ended up not aligned and i had to drill them out to provide some gaps and be able to put bolts in. Other challenge - lift Radar to the mast safely, but it is round and has no features to tie rope to it ;-) Install ring camera to radar mount. Drilled 3 holes and riveted mounting plate for Ring camera to be able to observe what is going on on the docks, especially when really bad weather hits. Put mainsail and sail pack back to the boat. Just put them back and connected the pack lazy jack back up to the m...