Preparing for the Big Sail

May has been a busy month for the Witch. With the big crossing in mind which will lead us to France and hopefully across Biscay in two weeks, the list of things to buy, fix, and prepare is/was nearly endless. I don’t think I can remember everything that we did anymore as it has been a lot, but here ‘s a brief report of some of the things.

There was of course the usual anti-fouling and anode changing procedure; the Main and one of the Genoas needed repairs and were taken to the sail maker, the life raft was professionally serviced, new offshore graded flares came into being as well as a new automatic fire extinguisher for the engine compartment. We also bought new mugs because we love coffee and a few  MOB safety automatic lights for the crew.

The engine was serviced with an oil change, impeller checked, and David took the task of emptying and cleaning the diesel tank which by the looks of the deposits that came out of it, was in definite need.

Electronics-wise there are a few new boxes converting thingys and signals from NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 and there is a new Raspberry Pi board computer responsible for recording all sensor data for posterior analysis. Wind speed, depth, course, position, battery levels, AIS, as long as it speaks NMEA they’re being monitored, broadcast on WiFi to OceanTrack and stored in an SQL database. Such fun, I love my job!

Mike showed David how to open the winches so we now have no winches as they’re all being serviced too… until tomorrow that is, when they’re due to be reassembled.

And lastly, the quest for power … with a leg that is expected to take a couple of days, loads of instruments, navigation lights,  and the possibility of staying at anchorages with no shore power, we needed a way to generate power and keep the batteries charged while sailing or at anchor.

The first step was to replace all the lights by LED based ones which consume 1/4th to 1/8th of their incandescent equivalents and are actually brighter. But this wasn’t enough so the solar panel project was born.

After days on end spent on research, we finally went for 2x100W Renogy solar panels and the amazing Victron MPPT 75/15 solar controller which comes with a handy app for monitoring battery levels and an API for interfacing with the Raspberry Pi. While I spent time reading specs, testing and analysing battery state and consumption, David took to drawing and building the stainless steel structure to support the solar panels. From conception to realisation, the frame was built, the panels installed, and we literally connected everything a few hours ago so we’ll see tomorrow how well it all performs.

And that’s it as far as I remember and/or for now… Launch is scheduled for Monday or Tuesday so only one day left, tomorrow. One last pressure and general cleaning day and we’ll be ready to roll.

Exciting days await the Witching Crew!