I’m not crazy about this (but I am crazy). If I forget to wear gloves while the rode is flying out when deploying these plastic things will cut the bejesus (medical term) out of my hands. But, other than that it’s pretty simple. Both rodes are 250′ long (with about 50′ of chain [which is SO lame]). Yellow ties mean “add 100″. Red or Green ties mean “add 25″. So – 2 reds and 1 yellow tie mean 150′, 3 greens and 1 yellow mean 175′, etc. It’ll be good enough for the San Juans but I’ll probably do colored thread or something in the future.

Exciting pictures (eat your heart out Ansel Adams!)

Sort of laid out in 25′ flakes… super accurate

175′ mark

On a positive note this will help me realize just how fucked I am while pulling in the anchor (I have no windlass)

I have a 300 Watt AC inverter on the boat which I could plug the MacBook Pro into (except the sign wave signature isn’t perfect so the picky bitch Mac won’t recharge the battery). But, using an inverter is pretty farm-animal stupid. You convert DC to AC and the power brick on the MacBook converts it back to DC. Um, yah

Thankfully there’s a pretty easy solution. The guys at MikeGyver custom alter MacBook Pro magsafe power cords to be used directly with DC cigarette lighter adapters. Works like a charm.

Of course, my boat didn’t have any cigarette lighters but it did have 2 prong water tight deck power wired throughout the boat. A quick hack and few parts from WestMarine had that working in short order.

They don’t seem to make 2 prong -> cigarette lighter adapters (I searched everywhere). The solution is to buy a Perko Watertight Deck Connection and a 6′ Extension Cord 12V DC. You use the male end of the Perko and cut off the male end of the extension cord, strip the wires and screw them into the Perko. Takes about 5 minutes. The only sticky wicket is which are the +/- on the Perko. The Perko has two poles for it’s plug, the fatter one is the +. On the extension cord just follow the normal electric rules – meaning the white cord is + and the black cord is – (negative).

Perko Watertight Deck Connection

6′ Extension Cord 12V DC

Finished product – yah – the fabric on the Westsail 28 is f’ing UGLY!

So – cool – now I can not only run the MacBook off the house battery bank but it also recharges the batteries. Sweet.