The title says it all! We’ve been busy with a million different projects on Paikea as deadlines loom and the summer sailing season approaches. Our goal was to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean this Christmas but a global pandemic and a long list of upgrades has meant we will spend another season in Europe. We are by no means disappointed with the situation. In fact we see it as an opportunity to do some real sailing and iron out any niggly problems before committing to a big ocean passage. Actually we expect there to be quite a few adjustments to be made given the scope of our upgrades. Of course plans are changing on where to go as countries open and close borders almost on a daily basis, but it has given us a good incentive to get Paikea to the stage where she can operate completely off grid. We now have a solar panel capacity of 600w and plan to increase to 1.2kW in the near future. We have a LifePo battery bank capacity of 8.6kW with which to store power. When we purchased her, Paikea had 150 watts and 2 x 150 amp truck batteries that didn’t work so this upgrade should be life changing for us. The boat has a large stainless steel water tank which holds 500 litres, however if we fill the water tank up to capacity the boat becomes too heavy and sailing sailing performance is comprised. Our solution has been to purchase a Spectra 50 litre an hour watermaker. This will allow us to make our own fresh water when required without having to refill out tanks at a marina every week. It also means we don’t have to sail around with 500l of water weighing us down. The spectra watermaker is fantastic as it does not require an external generator to operate. Add to this new rudders with wings which we are still putting together, transom extensions, new carbon front beam, new carbon longer one, new sail inventory and new carbon rotating rig we practically have a new boat! Keep up to date follow us on Facebook and Instagram and most importantly make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can see the progress.
