A backup for the backup
Sadly, the portable anchor light, that in the past, I have sang the praises about, has passed on.
RIP
Since the masthead anchor light on Frost had stopped working, and we have not had the time, or a calm enough anchorage to climb the mast to deal with it, we have been using our portable light, which I in no way think is less effective than the masthead light. On the contrary, it’s probably better. It was definitely the brightest light in the anchorage, and set up at deck level, was very visible to traffic.
After noticing that it was not working the other day though, I invested some time in trying to troubleshoot it. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful. I was able to piece together another portable LED light from parts that I found on board, a backup to our backup. I also found replacement bulbs for the masthead light. Hopefully, if this extra blustery weather ever abates, and we take the time to climb the mast, all that we’ll find wrong with the main light will be a blown bulb. Fingers are crossed.
Another good backup is a bright LED cockpit light. Not official, but easy to see the boat. Of course, you need a more dim light as well, for night work.
I actually considered swapping the LED bulb from our nav station into the cockpit light but after removing the covers, found that I’d have to swap the fixtures too.
I have an idea for that one too.
You would only be able to do this during mast maintenance, but here goes:
Run fiber-optic cable up the mast to the top and put the bulbs down at the base of the mast.
Perhaps there are issues with this idea that I haven’t considered, but it sounds like a really good way to reduce weight up top and also to improve maintainability.
– Dave
I’ll let the techie folks reply to this.