An Irishman's boating diary
Picking Up A Mooring Buoy singlehanded or with a crew needn’t be difficult. When I first tried picking up a mooring buoy I got it completely wrong. But now I know the right way when picking up a mooring ball or buoy. It’s not at all difficult, and this video makes it so easy.
Oh PS: If you would like to buy our book “Driftwood from the Shannon to the Marne” the story of our sea journey from Ireland to the French canals, follow this link: https://www.driftwood.tv/shop and thank you.
Victron Inverter Charger Installation on a boat or RV. Just how useful is a Victron Inverter Charger? How can an inverter charger install make your off grid life more comfortable? How easy is it to fit one? Here’s a step by step guide.
Winter boating on the River Shannon, and we take a look at the Bord Na Mona light railway. Soon this railway will be no more and will disappear into history. Lets hope that we have preserved a little bit of it here to jog those memories.
Fitting Sacrificial Anode On Boats and treating rust with rust converters: This episode is all about maintaining below the water line. Different types of anodes, zinc, magnesium, and aluminum as how to use them to prevent corrosion.
Get AqueSteel Rust Converter on Amazon through this affiliate link: (every purchase helps support the channel at no cost to you! Amazon give us a small affiliate commission, Ta) https://amzn.to/2HZ61LG For 1 Lt
Or
https://amzn.to/2Uvie0C For 4 Lts
Another great rust converter that I use is Vactan, more about that here: http://performance-chemicals.net/vactan/
Continue reading “Sacrificial Anode On Boats – Treating Rust Spots”
Today we had Driftwood lifted out of the water to do a few jobs on her bottom. Now the first thing is that boats do not like being out of the water any more than fish do. I get real nervous when I see her balancing on some boat stand where she is putting all her weight on just a few Sq. inches instead of her weight being spread throughout all of her hull as happens when she is in the soup.
This is a Nasa BM1 Marine Battery monitor display (& Nasa BM2) and we’re fitting it to replace our our analogue battery monitor. After having battery problems on our trip to Belleek we decided to go ahead and fit a proper Nasa BM1 Battery monitor, there are other ones but in my opinion this one represents the best value for money.
It’s not too big a deal to fit it and I had the advantage of musing over the instructions for a week before I got down to the boat to install it. If you want to know how your batteries are behaving you would really benefit from this or a similar unit. The Nasa BM2 will take a higher amperage as is suitable if you have (or intend to install) a large inverter.
You may have difficulties getting the BM1 unit delivered to Ireland directly. If you use ParcelMotel.ie you should be able to get it delivered for the UK postage fee plus €3.95. ParcelMotel.ie almost always works out way cheaper that direct post to Ireland.
The Nasa BM2 is an identical unit with the single difference being that it can handle up to 200Amps while the BM 1 can only handle up to 100Amps. So if you have a hefty inverter onboard or if you are likely to install one in the future you may be better off using the Nasa BM2. The setup is exactly the same for both units.
Continue reading “How to fit a Nasa BM1 Battery Monitor to assess your domestic batteries.”
Yep there’s a new boating season just round the corner so it’s time to get the boat fenders pumped up, and we take off the name plates to repaint them and renew the vinyl boat lettering.
Marion shows off our nice new boat BBQ that we bought on ebay. It’s a stainless steel one so at least today it looks nice and clean! Not sure how long that will last.
Continue reading “Pumping up boat fenders and getting ready for a new boating season. #40”
So what are the legal requirements for boating in Ireland?
People always ask us if you need a boat license in Ireland? And they also ask us about the law in Ireland about wearing life jackets. In Ireland there are a few common sense rules about the wearing of life jackets especially with children but the boat license thing never caught on here. Check the video for the full details.
We also have rules on holding tanks on boats. Basically it’s illegal to dump any effluent into the rivers or lakes. Which I think is fine too. Thankfully though you can either bring your boat here or rent one with very few restrictions at all.
need to winterise the engines and a few other bits on the boat in order to protect it against frost damage during the worst excesses of the winter.
Continue reading “Winterising the boat and engines against the cold winter weather”
Finding how to get an internet connection and especially free WiFi on a boat has long since been a challenge. Well here is how I do it and it works very well and I generally get quite good download speeds. Getting WiFi on a boat has always been difficult because generally a WiFi signal doesn’t travel very far.
Continue reading “How to get free WiFi on a boat and general boating internet info #26”
In this episode we’re updating our boats domestic lighting with new LED lights. By replacing our old boat lights with new LED lights we will greatly extend our battery life. The boat domestic electrics are all fed from our battery
Continue reading “Boat domestic lighting, replacing old boat lights with LEDs.”
The boat maintenance to boat fun ratio should always favor the fun! That said there are times when boat maintenance can’t be avoided and you have to just roll up the sleeves and delve into the black hole that is the bilge. In this episode we do a bit of essential boat maintenance before we set out across a very large lake called Lough Ree. Lough
Continue reading “Boat Maintenance & checks before we cross Lough Ree. Episode #16”