feeding
the L.E.D. fetish
KTL is available in HD at full screen for subscribers – 16 hours of great sailing films for $5 – 2009 also available on DVD
20,000 miles of coast to explore
Well Dylan, very informative, a guy can never have too many torches. I will be trawling eBay soon to look for some. I had already decided to go the LED route. Must be something you can do about the interferance though, some geek will tell you no doubt.
Regards,
Andy
Dylan. You should get one of those wind up clockwork powered lights(and radio). No need for batteries then
I use LED headlamps – the light is always where you look. Red is good for preserving night vision. Need for find some waterproof ones though, because I’ve drowned two.
About time, Dylan! Your site’s been a bit of a desert lately: not much new footage. I find my cheap 3-LED headlamps to be priceless at night: search the cabin, read a buoy, read the gps without draining its precious batteries with its backlight, even read the chart without taking a hand off the tiller. (Even so, LEDs ain’t sailing, eh? More sailing video, please!)
Jeff Michals-Brown
Excellent stuff Dylan, always good to see how other boaters spend their time fiddiling :)
1 Question, how do you manage to keep warm overnight now that it would seem that we missed Autumn as winters seems to be upon us?
W,
take a look at the first film in scuttlebutt – but I use candles, slow cooking, two sleeping bags, residual heat from the engine and a trangia.
J,
sorry that you find the slow pace of the journey not to your liking
sadly, I am not at all sorry about the slow pace of the journey
The flow of films is, I will concede a bit lumpy – but then so is my sailing – its not full time – just like yours.
Just like most of the viewers I have a job as well as being a sailor.
I did lose a lot of editing and sailing time this summer because of the repairs. Its the nature of the beast. If I were richer then I would give the boat to another person and get them to fix it for me and I would be back in the water within days. But if I could afford to do that then I would not be sailing on the cheap – which is clearly what draws people to following the journey.
It will get lumpier as I move further up country.
The logical thing to do is to let your subscription lapse after watching all 56 episodes and a few vlogs and scuttlebutt – maybe four hours of film – then spend the winter watching strictly come dancing and the Xfactor and then join up again next autumn to see how far I have got.
Of course if you can think of some creative ways of getting another thousand blokes to subscribe then I could afford to pay some-one else to fix the boat and I could spend the whole year sailing and making sailing films.
D
Now that’s telling it like it is! I just fell privileged to have the opportunity to accompany you on you odyssey,which the dictionary define as “a long wandering and eventful journey” – take as long as you want Dylan that’s fine by me.
Hi Dylan,
I like this ‘how to’ stuff. It seems to occupy about as much time as my sailing especially when I am staying out at anchor. However, you have yet to surpass your How to Cook a Fray Bentos Pie masterpiece.
Andy
Ooops looks as though I am the Geek.
I am afraid that a lot of cheap LED arrays cause RF interference. If you do use them DO check that they don’t interfere with your VHF kit. If it does, the unit has no place on your boat.
If you are reasonably competent with a soldering iron it might be worth trying to solder a 0.01uF ceramic capacitor across the 12V supply to the unit.
I trust that is geeky enuf for you all
G
Dylan, as always interesting piece from seemingly mundane.
The dumpy clip-on lights look great; like fireman lights. Where did you get them, I’ve searched Ebay and amazon???
Good work on PBO camera posting by the way, lots of publicity methinks.
Rolson – ebay – they seem almost immortal on the batteries
very useful indeed – they cost £1.50 a pop
Thanks, Dylan. These how-to’s good additional stuff. Don’t always agree with you, but that’s part of the point. I’ve gone from tealights (not enough light) and camping gaz lantern (single-use mantles, in sailing environment) to parafin (hurricane) lantern. Bright enough (8 candle power – bigger available) for oldies to read by, and still nice warm glow. Very concentrated fuel. Nice smell (!! before anyone says).