aardvarkash10

Anyone have any?

Revised setup in a bit more detail. The upper hand ascender and the chest ascender are both Xinda 22kn devices as are the blue carabiners. I've been practising on an 8mm double braid line, its the smallest diameter the devices are designed for. In use, it will be a 10mm (or maybe 12mm) line. The bosun's chair clips to the bottom of the chest ascender. A strop (yellow and black trace 6mm double braid) runs from the same carabiner to the top of the hand ascender. This means either or both ascenders can be used to hold the bosun's chair. This is required for the changeover to a des

It improves the experience, yes.

Splicing rope is kinda fun. Its technical (sort of) artistic (sort of) and useful (mostly) I've struggled splicing double braid until I discovered pull fids. They work well even on used lines which are typically too tight to successfully splice. These images are of an eye splice being constructed on unknown 8mm double braid that has been drifting around in the stern locker of SO for all the time we have owned her and probably a long time before. The pull fids are made out of champagne corks and 1.8mm stainless TIG wire. One is 125mm long the other is 250mm. The most expensive pa

I know nothing about that sort of sailing, but I would have thought that a trip of that distance (approx 20,000km or 10,800nm) would be difficult to estimate down to a one-week window... The math goes like this though - 10,800nm / 5kt average speed = 2160 hours = 90 days. So you have to sail 24/7 for it to be a 3-month voyage. Gear breakages, stopping for restocking of supplies, delays in the canals, weather etc are all variables that will add to the time, not subtract from it.

There is nothing like getting back to basics. Check the battery properly - if its open cell, check them all for level and balance. Check the open circuit voltage (after a decent rest period). Check the cranking current loaded voltage. Use a voltmeter and check the circuit voltage drop from the alternator to the VSR and then the VSR to the battery - live side and earth side, under load (20 A or better). Visual is fast, but voltage drop testing is accurate and relevant. Check the charging voltage and current to the engine battery. Check for a low-current draw off the battery w

It's arguably the better place to connect to.

this has been very useful - thanks everyone for the input. The ascending is not bad - I need a second foot loop instead of just one, but other than that it seems good. I will probably get a dedicated descender. I've used the old figure 8 style before, but will likely go with the knucklebone looking type for the reasons given in the video that Psyche posted. I'm not brave enough to think I can do it on a prussic alone.

Hey Riki - DBLRUM out of Bucklands is regularly looking for crew for day sailing on a 26-footer. He posts up on Facebook regularly as well as here.

marry an experienced blue water sailor.

Well, its six times the price of my rig and not as versatile (if I sell mine, it can go rock climbing, abseiling tree pruning etc). Outside of that, not a lot that I know of. People should make their own choices.

Sadly, our anchor winch is a vertical shaft type complete with gypsy and direct feed to the anchor locker. Also, Mrs A might feel herself inclined to leave me dangling for an afternoon or longer. Trust issues.

Set up a practise rig on the deck at home. Good thing. I got stuck at the top (only about 60cm off the ground) from a failure to think about how to go down. Sorted now, and Mrs A only chuckled a bit.

If you have a lot of different loads and/or different chemistries and/or large or complex battery and charging systems, knock yourself out with an all singing all dancing battery monitor. But for a simple lead acid same chem/same construction system, an ammeter and voltmeter should provide all the info you need. In both cases, knowing what you are looking at is more important than how much information it can deliver. IMO, YMMV

busy trying ot save a ski field atm. Good luck to those of you attending

that was the video that assured me it was do-able.

I'll be using a prussic as a safety,, but I wanted something that looks more positive for climbing! I watched a few videos of people using just prussics. My sphincter puckered.

Thanks Martin, your use is exactly what I had planned

I just tried climbing a tree in the back yard. I should really get to the gym more often...

I'm not intending to swim with it! I get your point Martin - It will mostly live off-boat and its easy to flush if by some very strange circumstance I find I have to use it in a howling gale and high sea state.

Some might and I might be one of them. but the reality I've seen elsewhere and in NZ is that all things being equal a location with excessive proportions of elderly people almost invariably decays and dies. It would take a significant and concerted intervention to turn this around. /another threadjacking

My self-ascending gear has arrived!

Some of it is self evident. Oldies tend to consume less personally and so spend less in the local economy. As communities age, the infrastructure needs change - for example schools shrink driving a reduction in teachers and other staff who leave and make the population older on average. Families consider the state of the local school and it's loss of capacity and exit for locations with better or broader education opportunities. This again reinforces the aging. Eventually the community is ALL old people. It becomes more unattractive for young people. Property values decline because

SO has a bath! Its about 4,000 sq km.

Petrochem dollars buy up football interests including the World Cup in an environment where money and success has overtaken ethics. Sound familiar? https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/11/qatar-hosting-fifa-world-cup-soccer/672171/