Airship’s Electrical Upgrades Before our 5-month trip up the Inside Passage to Alaska aboard Airship, we did some major upgrades to Airship’s electrical power system. Now, after five solid months on the boat – mostly away from marinas, here is a summary of how the system performed, what we learned, and what our “ideal” power system might look like. SPOILER: It was AWESOME! We could not be more thrilled with … Read more
Ford’s Terror might just be the most beautiful place on the planet. Cliffs—absolutely humongous granite walls, really—rise from water’s edge to snowcapped bowls and peaks 5000 feet above. Countless waterfalls, some trickles, others torrents, plunge from these peaks. Bears forage ashore. Dolphins frolic around anchored boats. The scale of Ford’s Terror is difficult to comprehend and impossible to convey. It’s like Yosemite, but with water in the valleys, no crowds, … Read more
As we prepared for our summer expedition up the Inside Passage to SE Alaska, we did a number of upgrades to Airship (our 2013 Nordic Tug 34). Now that we’ve been underway for over two weeks, some early favorites have emerged. Here’s what we like and why: #5: Nightstand USB outlets and iPhone/Watch charging stands OK, this may sound like a dorky one, and it is only #5, but hear … Read more
This winter, we posted on Riveted blog about how we upgraded Airship’s solar power system. The two new 260W panels, dual Blue Sky MPPT charge controllers, and BlueSky PNPro control panel are performing great. We have seen as much as 30A output from the solar system already, and are consistently getting over 100Ah per day contribution to our power from solar. The second phase of the power upgrade for Airship … Read more
A couple years ago on our Riveted blog, we wrote that we had found the best-ever mobile internet solution for our boating and RV adventures – The “Moovbox” from SinglePoint Communications. We have used our Moovbox on both our boat and our RV over the past couple of years, and it has performed brilliantly! But, time and technology march ever forward and it was only a matter of time before … Read more
This morning as we were working and having coffee in Active Cove at Patos Island, I noticed out the back window what looked like a pretty big boat heading toward the cove. This is a pretty small cove (only two mooring balls), and this boat seemed, um, large. It showed up on AIS as a vessel called Thunderbird, and it was designated a pleasure craft. (I don’t think so.) Pretty … Read more