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Blue Sea Systems is sending me a new voltmeter. I’m glad I chose their product and will do so in the future. I’ll also update this thread when the new voltmeter is installed.

Until last summer we owned a home that looked west through Dana Passage. Over the years we used to remark about how little boat traffic there was. Well, it has picked up considerably in the last few years. I think South Sound has been discovered.

There were a dozen or more boats anchored in that bay Sunday afternoon.

Yes, I am certain I took the measurements from the leads to the voltmeter. But because I’m pretty obsessive about things, I’m going to pull the panel again and recheck with both multimeters. The gauge does have a calibration screw. The directions (see below) seem to suggest that this is used...

Yes, hot lead is on + terminal.

It is an analog gauge from Blue Sea Systems. https://www.bluesea.com/products/9353/AC_Voltmeter_-_0_to_150V_AC

How do I check the new gauge to see if it is defective? I apologize if the answer is obvious to most, but electrical stuff is not my strength. I intend to improve in this area as fast as I can.

Done. I started with an inexpensive multimeter from our local hardware store. It showed 120 volts at the leads. But the numbers are difficult to read on this multimeter. So I ordered a much better multimeter on Amazon with a few hundred 5 star reviews. It also showed 120 volts, and is much...

I don’t think so, but I’ll check.

Interesting. I had all of the breakers except the main turned off and still got slightly less than 100 volts. However, I will check each breaker independently and see if there is any effect.

Great question. I don’t know. We bought the boat late in the summer and almost immediately had to deal with a family emergency. I didn’t know that ac gauge had quit working until we stored the boat on its trailer at a local marina. The marina informed me the gauge wasn’t working when they...

The original ac volt gauge that came with our new boat quit working, with the gauge showing no voltage to the boat even though a check of the voltage at the leads to the gauge showed 120 volts. The connections seemed secure. I bought and installed a new gauge and it is showing slightly less...

Lots of boat activity in South Puget Sound. McMicken Island had lots of boats anchored and moored nearby. Busier than I remember.

Thanks for the help everyone!

We had the cockpit enclosed with canvas this spring and had a davit installed up top. It almost doubled our living area. Now it is plenty big enough for us and we can easily get a dinghy or kayaks off the top. We got the boat late last summer and haven’t had much time in it yet. But we’ve...

I’m thinking about making my own anchor bridle. I’d splice together two lines and run each end through a hawsehole (using chafe protection) and to the cleat behind the windlass. Then I’d braid the leg of the “Y” the way Rich suggests to add in snubber-ability, and tie it off to my anchor line...

Haha! My wife figured it out right away! Do you finish the end you are hitching to the rope rode in any particular way?

This approach makes a lot of sense to me. I’m just trying to visualize how you make the snubber and then use it. I do know how to tie a tautline hitch. I’ll do an online search for making your own snubber. My wife asked me earlier today if the folks on this thread knew I was a newbie. I...

Yeah, I think mine would work kind of like yours. Just a cleat instead of a bollard.

My set up is similar to yours, except that my cleat is welded to the deck about a foot and a half behind and slightly higher than my windlass. I’ll try to post a picture.

Do you guys mean that I should cleat the line to that big hefty cleat right behind the windlass? How did I forget about that cleat? Geez, what a major forehead slap moment this morning when I got to the boat. Thanks for the reminder to use chafe protection on the line!

We have 30’ of chain and 270’ of triple strand nylon line for rode. Do we need to do something to protect our Lewmar windlass from strain at anchor? If yes, what? Our boat is a 31’ Kingfisher 3125 GFX. It’s an aluminum offshore fishing boat. However, we use it kind of like a water-going...

The Washington boaters’ card is a pretty simple online course/test. It seemed mostly about how not to run over people on personal water craft (jet skis). My wife and I have been taking the StarPath online navigation course. It is very detailed and well worth the time and effort. Though the...

One option for rocky beaches is to put some strips of kevlar in vulnerable areas to take the abrasion. We used to do this on white water canoes and it worked well.

Beautiful dinghy! Do you still have it? Did it turn out to be a good dinghy for your purposes?