Solar cells and steaming lights

Another maintenance day.

The target today to at least get the solar cells finished and working. We had a solar charger unit, which as a pain as it is positive earth and the rest of the yacht is negative earth, which means... we have to ensure that it is isolated from other equipment in the yacht.

On the output of the solar charger we fitted a shunt to measure the amount of current coming from the solar cells and a two way switch so we can either charge the navigation battery bank or the domestic battery bank.

Then it's time to go up the main mast to fix the steaming light. The old steaming light looks like a frosted glass fitting... it isn't of course, it's just the plastic has become frosted over with age. A perennial problem with plastic lenses on navigation lights. Actually, its good it's not actually perennial as it would prove expensive if it were!

When we were fitting the wind gauge at the top of the main mast I dropped a tracer line down the mast and Tim caught it within seconds. It wasn't quite so easy this time. Partly this was because the hole for the steaming light wire was at the front of the mast and so the line was dropping down the edge of the mast, whereas it was dead centre for the wind gauge.

One of the better investments we made was a treble clip safety line from mailspeedmarine.com.  I had been suggesting an elasticated safety line as they are easier to handle on a bouncing deck, but Tim suggested the treble hook one. This has proved invaluable in mast work. It means that once I am in location I can clip on - both as an added safety line should there be a problem with the main line up the mast and also to hold me to the mast and as a result I can brace against the mast. You can see it clearly in this photo and see how I use it to brace away from the mast in the next one.

When the steaming light was fitted I wanted to test it before proceeding, but we were beginning to lose light so Tim wanted to do all the mast work before dusk.

The final job was the two flag halyards. Strangely it looks lighter because the clouds have parted and we have blue sky, but the light is actually fading.  In some ways this was the most difficult thing I have done on the mast to date as I needed to fix a shackle with a block to an eye far out on the spreader.

Leaning out by pushing against the mast was the answer, but being gently rocked around while trying to threat the tiny shackle and not dropping anything was... interesting!

Down the mast... test steaming light... Everything worked and it was time for home.