Preparation to Leave
- Blue Safari
- Oct 15, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 5, 2023
Before embarking on a several year journey with Blue Safari, there were a number of upgrades and systems to be installed. Mark left his job in June and Lisa left hers in October to try to get everything done, but ultimately, we felt like we should have quit about 4 months earlier. Too many to list in this blog post, but the major systems were solar panels, water maker, SSB radio, life raft, sail repair, replacing all running rigging, replacing the trampoline (with an offshore rated net). The solar panels, along with the solar panel rack was one of the larger projects. Huge thanks for the help to Larry Powers (from Clint Precision Manufacturing ) for all the welding on the stainless tubing structure for our 435W LG panels. He not only welded up the rack, he also took the time to teach the un-teachable (Mark) how to TIG weld.
Pictures below show the rack in work, and ultimately installing. Also, a big thanks to Jud Harvey, Russ Turk, and Jeff Cerjan for all the help installing and wiring these big panels up. Thanks to all the help, we now have almost 2200 watts of solar. We didn't get it all the flexible panels hooked up until December 1st though, as there were so many projects that there was no way to finish it all before the Baja Haha started.
Jud Harvey sacrificed several days to come down to the boat to help install all kinds of systems on the boat. The solar panel rack was one them.
Routing the solar power cables through the boat was challenging as there was not much access to all the pass through holes. It was definitely a two person job. Russ Turk came all the way down from LA to stay with us for almost a week to help wire up the panels, controllers, and inverter/charger.
Finally, the large LG solar panels were installed and looking fantastic. These two panels alone are 870 watts. Later we installed flexible panels all over the roof to get us to about 2200 watts.
There were also many other projects to accomplish, like getting the house ready to rent. Thanks to Tania Kapple and Kat Harden for helping to clean, organize and purge unneeded items. We also had to load the boat up with everything we'd expect to need for a few years. This was surprisingly hard. How much clothing, food, and wine to bring? There is only so much room on our boat for storage, so a lot of things had to be left behind. But even leaving a lot behind, there was still a ton of things to pack into Blue Safari before dropping the dock lines. All this while juggling quitting our jobs, getting a captain's license, and even taking a 2 day offshore medical emergency class. It was down to the last minute, but we got most things accomplished that we needed to.
