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Days#278 Galveston bay sailing with friends, cleaning lazarette

Sailing   We had a great time out on the water this weekend. It was my birthday, and we spent six lovely hours on the bay. The water was almost flat, and the wind was just 3–6 knots—perfect for a relaxing day. No sporty sailing, no drills, less than 10 degrees of heel, and speeds of 2–5.5 knots—whatever the wind gave us. We even enjoyed hot tea and birthday cake (Napoleon) underway, thanks to our big boy: a 3.5 kWh battery and a 3 kW inverter       Just me    Boat work  Next day little work on boat was done. But Coffee is the first. So, what got done: A little software fix before we headed out. I fixed an annoyance with the NavPod: the button to activate the autopilot didn’t automatically set the current heading as the target heading. Now it works as autopilots normally do—press AUTO, and the boat continues on its current heading. Adding a cockpit shower. The work is partially done: the cold water line is routed to the lazarette, and a ball valve and s...
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Days 276-277, Sailing Kemah to Galveston and back, Real full weekend sailing. Installed my design Power supply to Battery automated switch aka UPS

  Sailing     Just picture for title   This trip was: Longest over weekend trip ever I did on Vira. Closest point Vira was from the REAL sea water.  First time in Galveston First overnight not in home marina.  Sailing in busiest commercial tragic spot I ever did. Practically used AIS not for fun.  First attempt to overnight w/o AC at 30C temperature (but then cheated at slip) First crossing shipping canal in Galveston Bay. First cooking under way First Absolutely sober sailing for a while ;-)        Early morning Saturday    Early morning in the marina  Getting out of Kemah about 10:20AM  Captain VicVic  Under way to Galveston, Peaceful cruising in 5-6 kn wind     Hiding in the shade of Genoa Found some motor -sailor in the Galveston canal  Beating hard   Wind is getting stronger  Coming closer to Galveston i clearly understood why i installed AIS transducer and how useful it in...
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Day 274-275 Sailing with family, Small things

 Sailing Just calm day 4-6 kn find and almost no waves on the bay, round trip sail 16 miles. Get out 4 year old  grand daughter , older son and his wife. It was very hot day, we ended up switch AC on from inverter to let kid little fresh space to rest.  After 3 hours we agreed to get back to dock to let family travel back home in reasonable time.Just pictures of other boats on the bay this day.    Small things  Boat network Replaced on board wifi router. New router is 2 and 5Ghz wifi, provides VPN to home router, so i can setup system backup and get access to monitor boat remotely.  software  Vibe-coded  plugin for OpenCPN to show true wind on the map. Blue arrow shows wind on the map. Likely later I will add  lee lines as well. Refrigerator Found it not switching on compressor. after 3 years small relay contacts inside the cheap thermostat fail. Looking dipper... likely fail is due to it is loaded with coil of 30A relay and likely that ...
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Day 272-273, New outhull line setup, NavPod final installation, Smooth water Sunday sailing

Sails New Mainsail outhull  setup. Original boom end is a total disaster. Clue end of the boom has just hook on the end to lead outhull from clue to hook, then to block turn line back to horn cleat on the end of the boom ?!?!?! How I suppose to adjust it under way??? Original end on the boom lines arrangement.   Boom end outhull hook   Topping lift line. Very strange setup. No way to put any reasonable tension on the outhull a specially for windy conditions, near impossible to adjust tension under way.  With new sail I want  to be able to do mainsail foot adjustments underway.  I  built 4:1 purchase system for outhull line.   It is temporary solution and I am looking completely rearrange my boom to accommodate 4 reefs (instead of one I have now), outhull and topping lift. add V-cleats and horn cleats  to hold reefs locked.  Future plan. Internal lines  mount block inside the boom at the end for outhull and put second purchase  ...
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