Decisions, decisions, decisions Part II

A while ago we posted a blog about a couple of our decisions before departing on on our trip. Today we want to show you a couple more decisions we have made, and for some of them, how we enjoy them!

Safety equipment

Some things we really wanted/needed to buy before leaving were a life raft and an EPIRP. Our life raft is almost 10 years old and it needed to be serviced. Apparently this year the servicing would have been very expensive so we got the advice to buy a new one. We decided to go for the Plastimo Transocean ISO. It is sturdy, big enough and hopefully, we will never need it! Same goes for the EPIRB. We needed to replace the battery, but that seems to be more expensive than buying a new one. Easy decision here!

Solar panels

Together with the arch, we needed to decide on solar panels. We had 2 panels, but we wanted more. The more power, the better right?! But what is the right amount? As much as possible, but not more than needed and wasting storage space. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the same solar panels as we already have. Miguel suggested to keep the ones we had on the side of the boat and buy 2 big new ones for on top of the arch. I was not a big fan of this idea, due to the solar panels being in the way whilst docking Saetta. There was a lot of math involved but we decided to buy one new solar panel, which brings our total to 550W. This should be enough to keep us going! And now, month into our trip, we haven’t had to connect to shore power once. Our solar panels generate enough energy to keep us going.

Water maker

One of our first big decisions of this year was to get a water maker. Our process was similar to our process with the arch. A lot of back and forth. Pros and cons (and the con mostly being the price!). In the beginning of the year we went to the boat show in Dusseldorf, mainly to have a look at water makers. There are quite a few of them around, which does not make the decision any easier. In the end, we decided to buy our water maker at Osmosea, an Italian brand. Their watermaker is relatively small and quiet and the price/quality seems pretty good. Just before we finalized the sale, Italy went into lock down due to Covid-19, which delayed shipment and all that good stuff. A few months later it arrived and we installed it just before departure. One of the nicest things about this product is that it ships with everything that you’ll need, even the seacocks! However we had a different idea. We didn’t want to make more holes in the boat, and instead wanted to share seacocks. For the inlet the watermaker shares the seacock with the engine, and for outlet it shares the shower pump. One more note on the inlet, to ensure no issues with water flow, after the inlet we installed a Y-valve. Once the installation was complete we didn’t want to try it out as the water in Amsterdam was too murky, and in all fairness, we wouldn’t need it. Finally, about 2 months after we finalized installation, we turned it on in Algarve, Portugal. It is slightly louder than we thought it would be. That’s because of where we installed the pump but the membrane is not quiet either. Anyway, when compared to other boats, it’s better (volume of sound, not volume of production). So far we are pretty happy with it! The watermaker makes 25 liter an hour. We do think that if we have to buy a new one (which we hope we won’t have to!) we will go for a slightly bigger one. The great thing about the 25 liter is that it can run on 12Volt. This means we don’t have to run the engine or a generator to turn it on. Our solar panels provide enough electricity for the watermaker to run.

Solar oven

At the moment we cook on gas. Our gas locker can hold 2 gas bottles, so we have been looking into other ways of cooking. Plus, sustainability, the less gas used, the better! Although a solar oven takes quite a lot of space and we need to take it inside and outside every day (it can not be on deck whilst underway) we really think it is worth buying one. We found this great company SunOk in Portugal, who makes the solar oven from cork. The cork needs to stay away from water, but we love the sustainable design. And lucky for us, they were able to sell us a refurbished solar oven, which meant a huge price drop!

When it arrived we wanted to try it as soon as possible, so I started to prepare a lasagna. Sadly the day became very cloudy, so I had to pop it in to our gas oven. We managed to use the solar oven onces in the Netherlands, we made nice pizza! I Spain I made my first loaf from scratch. It had to stay in the oven for about 4 hours, but it turned out great! Next project will be to measure the temperature over a couple of hours, to get a better idea about times and temperature.

Comfort seats

Comfort seats? Yes please! But do we really need them? Not really, but we like being comfortable. We like to sit on deck, but don’t really have a good place for it (except our seat in front of the boat, looks great, doesn’t it?!), so a comfort seat will help. So yes to buying it, but next decision: which color? We decided to go with blue, since it fits the rest of Saetta. And it has been a great buy.We really like how we can place the seats anywhere and still have some support in our backs.

This blog does entails some links. Some go to photo’s on our Instagram account, others to web shops, where we bought our products. We do not get any money when you click on them. We are adding these links to show our appreciation to companies who help us prepare, make sure we are able to get the right equipment and give us a good deal when we buy things. If you want to support us, you can become our patron, by going to https://www.patreon.com/sailingsaetta or buy our awesome merchandise at https://tamedwinds.com/collections/sailing-saetta