In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we have our stainless steel davits and solar arch installed and we take some time out to explore the salt ponds nature res...

Closed Captions (CC):
It's Tuesday morning of week 3 of being

on board and today we're expecting the

guys to come and install the solar arch

and stainless steel davits system.

I'm getting a little bit stir-crazy now.

I mean it's a nice marina but I didn't

come here to sit in the marina, I came here

to sail.

So this is our stainless steel

davits and solar arch system. It's not

much of an arch it's more of a square

boxy shape. I've been waiting for this to get

installed for quite some time now. Once

this is on and it should be finished

today then we can get the solar system

installed as well which will mean that

we've become quite a lot more

self-sufficient once we're out and about

on the hook.

Not one to put a jinx on things

but it looks like the

measurements and angles are not quite right.

And so after much head scratching

and discussion the davit system was put

back onto the trailer and it was back to

the workshop for a rethink on exactly

which angles were going to fit the back

end of the boat.

So this is interesting Jose is putting

the overtime hours in. He's actually come

back with the inox stainless steel arch

at just after eight o'clock at night and

I can see already just looking at the

the base there it's had some modifications

so let's hope that it actually sits into

place this time.

So surprisingly there's only five bolts

on either side that attach the arch to

the hull but it really has taken the

guys since approximately eight o'clock

this morning and it's now six o'clock at

night to get the job done it's all going

to be seated properly with stainless

steel back plates and of course it's got

to be sikaflexed in to make it fully

waterproof because you do get a lot of

waves washing up over the back end of

the boat when you're out sailing.

This big piece of stainless steel sits on top

of the arch and these solar panels get

installed on top of that piece of

stainless steel so all in all it should

look very impressive when it's finished!

And it will be very functional of course.

Now we've got this stainless steel arch on

the back of the boat and we've got the

four solar panels connected on top of it,

or installed on top of it, it's now time

to get them connected. So once again that

means the boat gets turned upside down

because primarily we've got to take all

the stuff out of this locker here so

they can get access to the back end of

the boat to run the cables and then of

course they've got to come through into

this berth down here where the batteries

are and that means that that berth got

to be turned upside down and everything's

got to be taken out there as well so

Aannsha's emptying the berth and I'm emptying

the locker and the guys just turned

up with a big box full of stuff, so it looks

like we're gonna get our solar connected

today. That's exciting!

So the whole boat's

a bit of a mess at the moment. The guy's

been here all morning. He's gone off for

lunch now. Hopefully he's get it finished

by the end of today I really would like

to get the water tanks installed before

the weekend arrives and everyone buggers off.

So that's the MPPT controller that

we've got. It's going to live on that wall

over there. These are our house batteries,

that's our engine starter battery. He's

running the 12-volt cabling

through from the solar panels on the

back end of the boat and then there's a

big thing that's got to go in here which

is the inverter and again because the

12-volt comes in to the inverter we've

got to keep that cable distance as short

as possible so there's no real power

loss, but he said he can run the 220 that

comes out of the inverter as long as we

want. It can go three times around the

boat if you want to.

Okay so we're getting a Victron Energy 800 watt

inverter. So the 12 volt goes in this end

and the 220 comes out that end. So

that'll take the power from our solar

panels and turn it into usable 220 volts

for charging up our laptops and cameras

and everything else that we need while

we're out sailing and the sun is shining

Another interesting job today is the two

stainless steel water tanks that live

underneath the main cabin bed. They've

been removed completely. They're going to take

them back to the workshop, they're going

to clean them out and also then they're

going to fill them up and see where the

drips are coming from because there's

definitely some sort of small leak

happening with these stainless steel tanks.

It's pretty gross isn't it? Yeah.

I think it's going to be cleaned out before

they put the tanks back, so, but I'm going to

be sleeping on there tonight not

actually in there - no. No they're putting the

boards back for me and the mattress is going

to be going on.

Thank goodness though they're fixing the leaks.

These tanks were made to fit through the

companionway. There's two of them but

they're really heavy and awkward

It's so exciting getting the water tanks

in. Even though they're cumbersome to get

through, they fit through the

companionway, they were made to.

And they're going to give us

600 liters of water which we can use.

Today is Sunday so we're taking the day

off from sitting behind computer screens

and we're going to be walking along the

beach. In fact that beach there that's

behind me. There's actually a little windmill that we've spotted quite a way away

in the distance and we're gonna try and

head there today see what it's like.

Yeah, should be interesting.

So healing salt waters. You can really

understand why some people would come

here as a holiday destination.

It's very pretty too.

Pretty good tucker. Not bad.

So now it's shopping. And a taxi to take us home.

Yeah. A three / three and a half hour walk to get here...

That was good. I don't think I'd want to do

it again, especially with bags.

So we're going to get a taxi.

Next week on Sailing A B Sea, we take delivery of our new Zodiac

dinghy and Mercury outboard, parcels

arrive full of goodies and we get

hauled out for work on the hard.

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