C'est la Vie is a 1966 Charlie Morgan 34.

Her home port is Everglades City, FL. Our typical cruising area is Southwest Florida, the Florida Keys, the Southeastern Atlantic Seaboard, and the Bahamas. We are C'est la Vie's third owners and purchased her in 2005. We continue to maintain and update this classic vessel. Please post any questions or comments about C'est la Vie or our travels via the comment links below.


Friday, May 17, 2013

Running Wires for Solar Panels & Wifi Antenna

Pulling wires though small openings and running wires along tubes pretty much describes my afternoon  Wires from the new solar panels now snake over the bimini, along the stern rails, and thorough the deck via a new through deck fitting installed  starboard side aft.

One #10 wire from each panel now runs down along the starboard stern railing and through the deck.
We purchased a WirieAP which serves as a wifi antenna and creates a wireless network for the boat.  Our decision to go with the Wirie was based on a Practical Sailor review and additional internet research.  I must admit the the fact that the creators of the device and owners of the company are live aboard sailors won them some favor as well.  

the new WireAP mounted on the stern wind generator tower
The unit is self contained in a waterproof box.  The only cabling is a wire for power.  The unit is sold as a 12V DC system, but a 120V AC adapter is included in the box.  The unit also includes a mounting bracket for 1" to 2" poles.  Experimenting with different installations on C'est la Vie, we elected to bolt it through the angle brace on the wind generator tower.  This does place the antenna close to the pole, but once again life of a sailboat is a series of compromises (or is that true of life in general?)

With the antenna mounted, I returned to running wires.  Fortunately a through hull fitting already existed for the Wirie cables.

Pulling all the wires below decks forced me to excavate the contents of both the lazurette and the starboard side cockpit locker.  

work zone or obstacle course?
The cockpit quickly became an obstacle course / work area.  

As light began to fade from the sky and the hungry Everglades bugs began to take over, bth the wifi & solar wires run into the starboard side cockpit locker.  Hopefully tomorrow I can complete their journey to C'est la Vie's electrical panel.  

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