{"id":4061,"date":"2026-08-24T21:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/?p=4061"},"modified":"2026-08-24T21:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:45:45","slug":"setting-ourselves-free-from-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/24\/setting-ourselves-free-from-shore\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting ourselves free from shore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After an extremely hectic January in the boatyard, cleaning Lanita up for the year ahead, it’d be fair to think that we’d slow down a little. Take our time through the remainder of winter, the time of hibernation. This, however, was not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’d decided not to renew our annual contract at Portland Marina and instead planned to move onto a mooring buoy in Poole Harbour for the summer. The catch was this involved having a solar powered electric system so we could work, have lights, and go about our daily lives. We would no longer have the luxury of shore power. The issue was, we didn’t even have house batteries – only batteries which should be dedicated to the engine. We had 2.5 months to research, design, and build our new system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we’re neck deep in a particular project I often feel I couldn’t possibly go any faster, or work any harder. Somehow, we always seem able to push the boundary a little further. So it was, any and all hours we could find outside of work through February, March and April were dedicated to the preparation of our house electronics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bit by bit, reading and re-reading, watching and re-watching, things felt like they were beginning to click into place. Studying the science; inspecting and understanding the current system; designing the new install; ordering the parts and tools; putting everything together, and hoping it turned on! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing, of course, went even remotely as smoothly as the impression given in the list above. The house system (the non-engine electronics) that was currently installed caused us much confusion, there was a logic to it that just didn’t make sense. The evening we delighted in dismantling it and creating our first circuit (photo below) to ensure we still had power for our lights and heater, was quickly followed by despair when we realised our not-so-trusty heater had decided it wasn’t going to turn back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After several weeks in the research and prep stage, we’d decided to take a week off work in order to put everything together. Ahead of that week we wanted to order everything we may need for the job so we weren’t wasting any time waiting for parts or tools. Each time we thought we had nearly finished with our order list we’d realise there was some crucial, unanswered question. There was an amazing amount of these!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBattery Amp hours are added together when you put them in parallel. But does that also add discharge amps? Yes, it turns out they do. What size fuse for the batteries? We could potentially have a 600A, but do we really want that running through our system? Probably not\u2026\u201d<\/em>

\u201cWe want to connect these to an electrical panel, not those, but the fridge is too small for a midi fuse. So we put them to the panel? I guess so, where else will that go? What about the autopilot? That does need a bigger fuse. So how do we split them off when they’re all coming from one big fuse in the Distributor?…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’d fall down rabbit holes as we searched in vain for answers to what seemed logical questions, but for which there seemed no readily available information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then we started. First, we bought the solar panels, and the parts for the structure we were going to create to mount them. Then, the batteries\u2026 a scary moment as this was one of the largest expenses. Were they the right amount of Amp hours for us? Were they the right size for where we planned to store them? (This one turned out to be a no, and required a replan after they\u2019d arrived!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuses; fuse boxes; cables; connectors (best make sure it’s the right kind and the right size); crimping tools (different ones for different connectors); wire stripper\u2026 the list felt endless. We’d scribbled diagrams in notepads as we pieced together our vision, created a more complete schematic on the laptop, had a spreadsheet listing all we needed and planned to buy. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Making the electronics board<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Assembly begins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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All the while through this whirlwind, I stole moments on the pontoon. Stopping to look up at the full moon, or to smell that fresh sea air, appreciate that expansive horizon. No obstructions in sight. In those minutes, allowing a glimmer of the daydream of what was to come. Was it real? I’m still not sure. Dreaming and excited to wake up on a mooring buoy. Our daily life, powered by the sun. At the same time, I daren’t believe it to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the electronics madness Miki also found time to cut inspection ports in our water tank, we serviced our water pump, and unbelievably, one evening we suddenly had water running out of a tap. After nearly one year using a foot pump this was quite a moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Project Build” Week<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Before we knew it, “Project Build” week had begun. The first evening we finished work we laid out all the cables and connectors that had now arrived to do an inventory count. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first full day was spent working out what screws, bolts, washers and spring washers we needed. Then realising we had several missing or wrong parts on our order. It turned out, all the preparedness could never make us fully ready for something we’d never done before. Next, we discovered the main battery switch we’d ordered (a key component that means we can separate the batteries from the circuit if needed) was going to be delayed indefinitely. We needed to find a back up, quickly! It was a bit of a blow to morale. Was our holiday week going to be wasted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next few days things continued to move forward. With respite only at mealtimes or when we slept. Things felt as though they moved painfully slowly at times, and others, we’d step back to look at how much we’d completed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solar panel structure added. Solar panels up. Hole in deck for the solar panel cables. We created a wooden panel from marine plywood to hold our key electronic components and painted it with a waterproof paint. Miki made a box to hold the batteries. Soon we were stripping wires,  connecting cables, watching the vision come to life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solar panel install<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Then we’d lose hours trying to understand the connector on one simple fuse box as it didn’t follow the logic of anything we’d studied. After several hours trying to figure it out and a message to the merchant, we awoke to a reply the following morning.  \u201cIt’s ok, it was just made like that\u201d was the answer…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was as though we were scrambling up a mountain, getting stronger along the way,  more confident in our abilities, and then out of the blue, a rock in the path and seemingly no way around. We hadn’t yet learned to climb. Instead we must make our way around the edge, in a gap that seems too small to fit. Until suddenly, somehow, we carve a hole big enough to fit through and continue on our way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the final day of holiday, we had connected the batteries and solar panels. Too late to take advantage of the day’s rays, we had to wait until the following morning to try. Or so we thought. In fact, we had to wait until Tuesday. Turning on the batteries and ensuring we had the correct settings for each of the components took longer than we’d imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday morning. We turned everything on before work. And there it was, a trickle of power coming in! Throughout the day for a mere 1.5% charge due to complete cloud cover. But a resounding success as far as we were concerned. We had power, our system worked!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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April arrives – as does the time to leave<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By the beginning of April, both batteries had both been charged to 100% by the solar panels (they arrived partly charged and needed to be fully charged before we could connect them together).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday 8th April – what a day! We ran AC cables through the engine room and round to the inverter-charger (this will charge our batteries if plugged into shore power, or allow us to use appliances like a kettle when using battery power), ready to begin the final part of install. Then onwards with the DC cables. In order to safely do our work through the day, we disconnected the old battery charger and mini circuit we’d created all those weeks ago. Little did we know we wouldn’t be plugging it back in\u2026 by the end of the day our inverter-charger was officially connected the lithium batteries! Miki charged his phone in the saloon, through a USB charger we’d added, from power provided by the sun, on solar panels we had installed. Amazing. Just amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following day we had some final parts of the AC install to finish, a car to pick up from the garage, and a confusing inverter-charger programming process to comprehend. Around 10pm, exhausted and having just eaten, we sat down to enjoy some wine and begin to soak in what we’d done. Everything was connected. With just over a week to go until our annual contract ended and we needed to move (or pay over \u00a350 per day to stay), we’d done it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was now possible for us to move to the mooring buoy, and away from our reliance on marinas. The exhaustion and the cold (the diesel heater was currently out of order and we hadn’t had a heater on due to being disconnected from shore power for hours) didn’t matter at that moment. We were free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After an extremely hectic January in the boatyard, cleaning Lanita up for the year ahead, it’d be fair to think that we’d slow down a little. Take our time through the remainder of winter, the time of hibernation. This, however, was not the case. We’d decided not to renew our annual contract at Portland Marina and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,316],"tags":[406,409,408,407],"class_list":["post-4061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boatlife","category-england","tag-electronics","tag-off-grid","tag-solar-panels","tag-victronenergy","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4117,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions\/4117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickispen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}