Please welcome the newest addition to our family - Aruna, a 2003 Kristen Yachts steel pilot house trawler. She joined our family on December 30th, 2023, a day before my 50th birthday. ? As with all of my other boats, I have a page with even more details that will always be updated with newer pictures, videos, and projects over time. You can find that below and in the main navigation on the website. M/V Aruna Aruna is a 2003 Kristen Yachts 50 Pilot House steel trawler that became part of our family in December of 2023. ⚠️I am still verifying some of this info and getting updated pictures a ..read more

This year was pretty amazing for trips and experiences on Kaos. Tons of anchorages, spectacular views, and all with close friends. The Numbers 2824 nautical miles 369 hours underway 116 different moves from place to place 185 days spent away from home port 85 days at various docks 93 days at anchor 3 days on mooring buoys I would have liked to have spent more days at anchor, but I always feel that way! Here are some highlights from the year. Early Winter in Canada - Gulf Islands & Vancouver Underway near Mayne Island I love cruising in the off-season - beautiful vistas with the cold ..read more

Washing dishes isn't as sexy as new marine electronics, but when you find a good solution to make your life easier, it's still a pretty good thing. I've tried a few different countertop dishwashers, and am pleasantly surprised with the Loch Capsule. I started using countertop dishwashers a few years ago, and while they seemed like they could help deal with dishes aboard, they always had some issues. On Rendezvous we had a Kapas dishwasher that worked OK, but it required two loads for an average meal because of the height. The second load was always for the plates, tipped over at an angle. Th ..read more

I wanted to upgrade the anchor and steaming light on Kaos and fix some cosmetic issues with the radar mount, get my GPS and wind instruments updated, and find a proper platform to mount my Starlink. I ended up choosing a couple of Seaview products which I cover below. Old Setup The old setup was a Seaview mount that had been damaged and was losing its coating in several places. In the janky version above, I had attached a piece of Coosa board to the top where an old Intellian satellite dish once lived in order to mount a couple of Starlink dishes for testing. This was in the summer of 2022 w ..read more

And often misunderstood feature on routers is the ability to grab a remote WiFi signal and use it as a source of internet. For some, it is overlooked completely as they rely on cellular or satellite, while others use it in ways that will impact performance. It can also be used for other creative means, and deserves some discussion. WiFi as a source WiFi was one of the first ways boaters could be online prior to cellular being usable and affordable. It's always been a bit of a mess - many companies produced boosters and various products that worked in different ways, but lacked a lot of featur ..read more

I replaced the majority of the electrical system on Kaos in May of 2022 because the old one did not meet my needs and had broken or worn out parts that I didn't want to try to replace. You can read about the whole project below. Kaos LiFePO4 electrical system v1 Kaos gets a new Victron 24 volt LiFePO4 electrical system that increases the reliability, capacity, and visibility. Steve MitchellSeaBits This is an update to that article to discuss what has worked, some performance details, and some future plans. Performance I have been extremely pleased with the overall performance of the syste ..read more

Victron has great visibility with their GX series of products, but there's an open source product that makes it even better. And recently Victron have updated their systems so you can get push alerts. GuiMods Standard Victron display The standard GX display screens are great and provide a quick way to see where power is flowing, general battery status, and more. However, it doesn't show a ton of detail, and if you want to change specific settings, it requires a number of clicks. Victron GX with GuiMods enabled GuiMods provides even more details in one screen as you can see above. Some of the ..read more

Starlink has a new dish that is interesting for the marine world. There are some pros and cons with the new option, and I've had a week or so to test with some interesting results. Starlink flat high-performance dish specifications - image courtesy of Starlink The new product is Starlink flat high-performance for in-motion use (a mouthful!) and is available under the RV plan. The dish itself costs $2500 and the monthly plan is the same as the current RV offering - $135/month. You can order this via Starlink and Winegard - this is the first time that Starlink has offered their products through ..read more

Kaos came with an electrical system that I wanted to completely replace. After lot of design and prototyping, version 1 of the new system has been in place for 6 months and is working extremely well. The Existing System The original system was a pretty typical setup that needed some updates. There were OK groups of batteries for the main engine start bank, generator, and thruster. They were being charged in weird ways, and the thruster batteries were as far as possible from the actual thruster, but they worked reasonably well. There was a house bank and an inverter bank, both using the same s ..read more

It's been about 8 months since Kaos joined our family, and a lot of projects and improvements have happened. I've put a lot of hours on the engines, watermaker, and generator, and had the opportunity to experience her in various conditions. Trips So far, I've put about 300 hours on the engines, which is actually sort of low for my normal cruising style. I've done a number of trips ranging from weekends, several weeks, and  a 30+ day trip up into Canada to Princess Louisa Inlet and other places. Kaos in Princess Louisa Inlet Many of the early trips were shorter due to poor house/inverter ..read more