Preparing to move aboard

Acting now to avoid chaos for moving onboard day.

Blog has moved and is back again

So this blog is no longer on Wordpress.com We are now hosted by Magicpages.co using Ghost. Nearly all the original content has been transferred. The only gap I know of at the moment is that the old comments are no longer visible, but I hope to bring them

Back at stretching dyneema rigging

Jane has finished the first 8 chainplate loops in 12mm dyneema for the main mast (we don't need one for the forestay and the inner forestay will be different). Plus she has finished 3.5 of the 4 lower shrouds (also 12mm dyneema). So we are back to

Huge changes coming

For once a title like this is not exaggeration and it's not click bait. We are very close to moving to love (nope, I'm not going to correct that typo ;)  ) on the boat full-time (current expectation is for 5 years). Jane finished her job at the

Electrical Progress

Due to a strong, cold North Easterly blowing straight at our companionway  we didn't feel like working with the main hatch open all day. Instead, we collected some stuff from our Storage Container. Then Jane started working on the first Dyneema Chainplate Loop for the main mast. Certainly

Time crunched progress

We haven't been blogging or videoing much recently. That's mainly because we are rushed for time. We will be moving aboard at the end of July and there is a lot to be done: * Boat interior as finished as possible so we are not trying to

Internet connected boat WiFi working

It has taken me forever to sort this out. However, it has suddenly come to together very neatly and quickly. With two separate boxes we have 5G and 2.4G Wifi networks on the boat that we can connect to an external WiFi network. Digital Yacht WL510 We have had

Forecabin progress

This week we have been working on the forecabin (well we also finished the starboard knees for the main mast cap shroud and have been waterproofing the mizzen dyneema chainplate loops). Lots of posts with pictures on Mastodon. This is what we have been doing today (no login required, just

New knees are done and more :-)

Knees This last weekend we have finished the knees on the starboard side for the main mast cap shroud. We are not going to win any prizes for beauty ;-) But this is so much stronger (remember the original single knee on the starboard side only came down to the

Companionway steps

Today we are refitting the original companionway steps. We have been through a few iterations on how to do this as we need them to be removable to give us access to the batteries. In the end we have removed the plywood lining and are fitting two horizontals. A third

Acceleration away from Billionaires

Recent events have led us to a significant acceleration this week. Also we now have more than 3.5x more followers of SustainableSailing on Mastodon (https://mas.to/@SustainableSailing) than on Facebook. So we have decided for ethical and health reasons to move faster to get away from the platforms

Should we compromise and use Amazon Affiliates

[Update] The conclusion that we have come to is that we should not compromise. Instead we are going to be doubling down on leaving all the Billionaire controlled social media sites that profit from our personal data, track us everywhere and exploit their workers. So the affiliate links and all

Electric

Multiple different Raspberry Pi5 computers on board

We will have four main Raspberry Pi 5 computers in use on Vida. Chosen for low power consumption, low cost and adaptability. Two are assembled and the main software installed (Home Assistant and Navigation). One is mostly assembled and waiting for an mvme card before installation (Firewall). The last is

Plans

Building our OpenWrt firewall on a Raspberry Pi 5

Starting the Pi build. The case is going to need a small extra cutout for the 52Pi 2.5gb extra ethernet (plus m.2 nvme board). Some in progress building photos On the boat one ethernet port (the one I designate as WAN) will connect to our Digital Yacht WL510

Appliances

Pi time

It's play with Pi time (2 x Raspberry Pi 5 single board computers). One will be running Home Assistant (automation to create a "smart boat" eg sounds an alarm to wake you up & sends you a WhatsApp message [in case you are not on the

Appliances

Starting towards a Smart boat

We've found the Smart Boat Innovations YouTube channel really helpful and encouraging. The technique of bringing boat data into Home Assistant is absolutely brilliant. It gets us away from expensive Marine technology into the world of free/open source software and standards. So I'm taking our

Uncategorized

Happy Christmas

Now that we are fully into the "official" Christmas Season and have caught up with some sleep we feel better able to wish you all a Happy Christmas! It's been a milestone Christmas for us. I turned 60 just before Christmas and we had a great

Progress

Mizzen mast has survived Storm Bert.

I've been working all weekend so we haven't been to the boat. However, Nick has been in touch to let us know our Mizzen mast is still standing after Storm Bert. Good news, that was a bad one.

Environmental

Welcome update

If you are joining us from "A Word in Time" then Welcome :-) These two video's might be interesting in terms of our plans, goals and beliefs. "It is the big reveal of the announcement we have been hinting at. Plus more progress on the

Dyneema rigging

New Video: Getting the Mizzen Mast UP!!!!

This is a huge milestone for us. We have done huge amounts of work on the mizzen so it's great to finally have the mast in place. The list of work includes: * Huge amount of strengthening below deck to support the mast * Fully clean and refit the mast

Dyneema rigging

Whoop whoop. Our mizzen mast is up

Cue Elton John "I'm still standing" Video coming on Tuesday 😍

Dyneema rigging

New video. DIY mizzen tangs & chainplates are done

We are ready to put the mizzen mast up, I've dealt with the poop and volunteers to paint the boat are welcome.

Dyneema rigging

New video: "Dyneema Chainplates Finished"

Check out our new video 👇 Now waterproof & Chafe protected If you like our videos, you can always drop a tip in our coffee jar (or become a member) on Ko-Fi! at https://ko-fi.com/sustainablesailing/ Our DIY Dyneema Chainplates are now finished and the deckhead prepared for the mizzen

Dyneema rigging

Video: Finished DIY Mast Tangs for Dyneema rigging plus more

Check out our new video If you like our videos, you can always drop a tip in our coffee jar (or become a member) on Ko-Fi! at https://ko-fi.com/sustainablesailing/ Our DIY mizzen mast tangs are finished and fitted (see "New! Version 3 of DIY Mast tangs for