Posts In The “Technical” Category
Yesterday we gave a presentation at the Seattle Boat Show on our trip around the world. We described some of the techniques we used to make the trip more safe and comfortable for longer passages and at the dock, ranging from watch-keeping and fuel management to living on a 60Hz boat in 50Hz countries. And…
The seminar schedule for the 2023 Seattle Boat Show has been posted. We’ll be presenting this year on Saturday Feb 4th at 12:00pm on our trip around the world in Nordhavn 52 Dirona. We will describe some of the techniques we used to make the trip more safe and comfortable for longer passages and at…
On a mid-November Friday evening, we attended the final few hours of the annual Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle. We always enjoy checking out the engines and equipment, reconnecting with people know from the industry, and learning about any new technology in the works. This year was no exception, and we spent time at the…
Osprey Straitjacket Compression Sacks are a wonderful piece of gear that dramatically reduce the size of packed items. We can carry much more than we normally could in the same space, and keep everything well-organized. Their rectangular shape also allows for more efficient loading and stacking. Unlike designs that use zippers for both closure and…
Our Starlink satellite dish would keep us connected while wilderness camping, but we needed a way to power it and all the rest of our electronics. An obvious solution would be a small, portable generator such as the Honda EU2200i. We used one on our first boat, that lacked a generator, and it worked well….
Sonos Roam is a pint-sized and lightweight outdoor portable smart speaker with impressive sound quality. We recently added one to our travel kit and are loving being able to play our music wherever we go. The speaker is ruggedly built of shock-absorbent materials, is drop-resistant, and has an IP67 dust and water resistance rating. We…
Starlink is a game-changing satellite service with a moderate cost of $600 for the antenna and $135 a month for unlimited data anywhere in the US. The boating and RV community are wild about it, and we’re pretty excited too. We’re replacing boat exploration with SUV exploration and camping, but many of the places we…
We encourage all questions to be posted to the blog using the General Comments section on the site (Post Comment). But there are times when those involved don’t want all the details to be public. When these appear to be of general interest, we strip out those details in the public version of our answer…
The annual MARS conference is a cross-domain event aimed at sharing ideas across the rapidly growing fields of Machine learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space. Hands-on learning and emerging technology demonstrations form the majority of the event, with opportunities for attendees to meet and learn from each other. The invitation-only event is hosted by Amazon founder…
One of the customizations we considered when building Dirona was a built-in gasoline storage area. We wanted to be able to carry on the order of 50 gallons (227 L), and didn’t want to manage a large number of individual jerry cans. We couldn’t find a place for built-in storage, however, and instead opted for…
Living aboard while travelling the world often involves opportunistic shopping. If we see something we want or need, it’s best to just buy it on the spot. We never know if we’ll return to the same store, or if that product will still be available when we do. One way we make this work is…
Watchkeeping is one of many important considerations when planning for an ocean crossing or a multi-day passage. Single-handers have little choice but to sleep while underway, with no-one monitoring the helm, while crews of at least two have more options. And the appropriate watch schedule will vary greatly depending on the number of crew, their…
Many boats have an automatic wash-down pump that helps clean the rode before it goes into the anchor locker. For those without, some choose not to clean the rode at all. We’ve not had an automatic wash-down on either of our boats, but we do like the anchor rode stored clean. So raising our anchor…
A couple of years back, we developed a serious rear main oil seal problem with our Northern Lights 12 kW generator. Oil was being sprayed all over the inside of the generator enclosure and running down the block. It was a real mess. Clearly the seal needed replacing, but it’s both a big job (notes…
A few year back, we picked up a FLIR ONE Thermal Camera from Amazon. It’s only $200 and operates as an extension to an Android phone (IOS also supported on similar hardware) with an on-phone application. Every 6 months we use the camera to do a full scan of the breaker cabinet, the DC cabinet,…
Downtown Seattle is full of apartment buildings overlooking Elliott Bay, with frequent ferry and commercial traffic. If a distress flare were fired in this area, you would expect this to generate a lot of reports. But when one was set off on a recent Tuesday morning, we might have been the only ones to report…
As we prepared Dirona for our trip around the world, we knew that a few of our US-based systems wouldn’t be compatible with those used in other countries. Connecting to shore power was an obvious one. As with household plugs, marine shore power connections around the world differ from those used in North America. Another…
Although we loved the warm weather in the South Pacific, we find ourselves drawn more to higher latitudes. Of the twenty years we’ve cruised in our Nordhavn 52 and our previous boat, most of that time has been spent in places where the summers are warm, but not hot, and the winters can be quite…