Kaimusailing

Sadly, the Chinese solar charge controller had the engine battery at a lower voltage than when it started. I added more portable solar panels to it and it began to charge again. It looks like a 1/4 volt voltage drop through the charge controller. I'll be patient with it and see if it will work out.
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I needed a "brick" battery for the electric bosun's chair and they were all dead except for one. It charged up to 13 volts, which is normal. What wasn't normal was a test of it with the bosun's chair. Up we went, about 2 feet, when it began to slow down. It slowed and stopped. No good. A replacement was purchased at a local "Battery Warehouse", 12 volt 10 amp hour brick battery.
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The new topping lift line was jammed at the top of the mast. It was impossible to see what was actually jammed from on deck, it would require a trip up the mast, hence the bosun's chair. With the new battery it went up fine. At the top my safety line was restricted and I was short of the top by about 5 feet. I could see the new thinner topping lift line had wedged itself beside the sheave in the mast. I couldn't reach it and would have to go back down and try again with the safety line repositioned. The battery ran out of juice when I got closer to the deck, slowing the chair to a crawl. It would have to be recharged.
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There are many ways to scale a mast, but a safety line completely independent of the primary hoisting line is necessary in case the primary should fail. With the electric bosun's chair, the primary hoisting line consists of a halyard and the chair's winch line. The halyard could fail, its block at the masthead could fail, and the winch could fail. The safety line has to use a different attachment point at the masthead and I use a harness that is independent of the bosun's chair. If the chair should fail in any way, the safety line will take the weight and allow rappelling down safely. If a safety line isn't available, then going up the mast shouldn't be attempted.
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I noticed a bare spot where a halyard had worn the paint off the mast above the spreaders. Another trip up the mast was planned. It's kind of like a spacewalk, everything you need has to be taken along, and if you forget something, there is no quick walk to the toolbox. I brought longnose pliers to try to remove the jammed topping lift line, two syringes containing the exact ratio mix of epoxy, a paintbrush, a cup for mixing, nitrile gloves, a paper towel, and a bottle of water. It was hotter than the day before and tomorrow would be even hotter. There was an urgency to complete work before bare wood got wet, and also before the heat wave hit.
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The aforementioned items were in a plastic bucket attached to the safety line D ring, along with a Petzl descender, all entwined with the standing bight of the genoa halyard. The bosun chair winch sounded more forceful with two batteries on it and they were more highly charged than the one on the day previous. Progress is slowed by constantly taking the slack out of the safety line, checking that no rigging will foul the chair's rig, making sure the line is being wound onto the winch correctly. At the top I realized the topping lift line would get fouled again after it is cleared from the sheave. It's too thin and has to be removed and the new larger replacement line has to be installed at the masthead. So, I left it alone, mixed epoxy, and came down painting bare spots with one gloved hand while operating the winch with the other.
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The picture is of the electric bosun's chair, an oak plank with a 12 V DC winch on one end of the plank and the pair of batteries at the other end. The winch control is the yellow handle with the two buttons for up and down. The winch line runs up through a block hoisted by the main halyard and comes down to the battery end of the plank.