Slipless in Seattle: Full-Time Cruising on Puget Sound

Since buying Safe Harbour three and a half years ago, I’ve been fortunate to spend each summer cruising British Columbia and Alaska. As spring rolled around I’d let the marina know that May would be my last month. And each fall I returned and lived aboard through the winter, spending most of my time at the dock. This winter was different. Unlike my previous job, working on Slowboat doesn’t mean … Read more

Power Made Easy

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

Our Five Favorite Boat Upgrades

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

Lithium Batteries on Airship – For the Win!

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