Blog

Muskrat
Chris and Alison
Mon 26 Jul 2021 20:19
Having thought we had solved the power supply problem, things started playing up again in the evening and Chris spent a long night trying find what was causing it. After disconnecting lots of the systems we decided it was something to do with the “always on” circuits, at this point we went to bed! The next day with a clear head and  much problem solving by Chris, we realised there was a big voltage drop between the solar panels and the batteries. Cue bits of wire running through the boat trying to bypass the problem.


Success! we now have 7 AMPS going into the battery, the CD player is not playing up and we can charge our phones. All we have to do now is find out where the bad connection is. During this problem solving dilemma, we also fitted a new solar panel controller.



The new solar panel controller in place.

Next job. When we purchased  Muskrat the cockpit plotter did not have chart card. No problem, we thought we would just trade in an old UK chart for a new Greek one. Unfortunately, when we asked Navionics, they said that the chart plotter wouldn’t accept the new cards despite it being the newer of the two plotters onboard. Cue new chart plotter. That was fitted last year. Of course, a new plotter means the latest technology - NMEA 2000 (not compatible with Muskrat networks) also it wouldn’t fit on the original bracket. After long discussions over the winter with Ocean Electric and very helpful chaps at Actisence, we decided to future proof and add an NMEA 2000 network. Cue this years project!




After a couple of hours it was all connected up top on the nice shiny new bracket (knocked up at home during the winter months and squeezed into one of the cabin bags)



Now all we have to do is to work out how to get this lot from the aft heads to the Nav station!


Meanwhile away from all the electronic paraphernalia, Alison was busy below the yacht scraping the old rubbing strake glue from the dinghy as the old rubbing strake had come off and was in need of re-gluing back on. 


After trying a lot of different solvents, scraping and rubbing, a combination of Petrol, very course sandpaper, a sharp scraper, used very carefully was the answer.




Then there was the delivery of our new downwind sail called a Parasailor. This sail is used instead of the symmetrical spinnaker and negates the need to use a pole. It is not an asymmetric sail but it doesn’t need a pole to fly it and is a very versatile sail especially being shorthanded. It was meant to arrive on the Friday, but Thursday night I got an email from the delivery company to say that due to us being in a "remote location” they couldn't deliver on the date. A quick email to the UK dealer who we ordered the sail from and the sail duly arrived Friday lunchtime.





The main task today was to do a mammoth shop to stock Muskrat up for the next two months sailing. Cue a taxi to the nearest big supermarket to start to get stocked up.