Quijote has a new SSB radio! SSB (Single Sideband) allows radio communication around the globe. The isolated back-stay serves as the antenna and the system includes a controller, transceiver, tuner, and ground plane. I successfully transmitted and received digital test messages to/from a coastal station at Pt. Reyes, near San Fransisco. A Pactor modem that allows me to send and receive emails and weather has also been installed and tested.
I disassembled the desalinator and replaced some seals to fix a leak, then did it a second time to replace another part when the seals didn’t fix it. The watermaker is now making water, albeit lake water to fresh water. The real test will come when we poke our nose out into Puget Sound and make fresh water out of sea water. The pressures are higher for that.
I replaced the house battery bank, increasing the storage capacity from 400 to 600 amp-hours. The batteries are larger than the ones they replaced, so it was necessary to cut the bottom out of the compartment that houses them to make more room. And doing that required that I re-route a heating duct.
Quijote has a new genoa. That gives her a suite of five new sails in all: genoa, main, drifter, storm jib, and storm trisail in addition to her original spinnaker.
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