Three Boat Flotilla, 1 Mantus Anchor, and 30 Knots of wind

Three boats, One Mantus

Yesterday, we had a couple friends come into the cove to visit.  The conditions were calm, so our friends rafted up to Banjo creating a cool three boat flotilla to spend a nice Saturday night.  Around 04:30 this morning, we awoke to significant wind gusts only to remember that we were the only boat anchored of the three.  The wind gusts were in the low-mid 30-knot range.  We found ourselves in the situation of a three boat flotilla all sharing one Mantus anchor. The specifics of the three boats were…

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Victron BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor Review

Victron BMV-712 Smart

A month and a half ago, we upgraded our house bank battery monitor.  We went from a Victron BMV-602 to a Victron BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor.  We re-wired our existing monitor to our engine start battery so we could monitor it separately.   In this post, we are going to give you our impressions and review of the Victron BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor. Background A few months ago, we performed some major re-work of our house bank.  At the time, we discovered our house battery bank was at the end…

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Mantus Anchor Bridle with Chain Hook

New Equipment: Mantus Anchor Bridle with Chain Hook Back in January, we upgraded our anchor gypsy, chain and anchor.  We opted to go with an 85-lb galvanized Mantus Anchor, upgraded to 3/8″ Galvanized G-43 High-Test Chain from Defender, and the more beefy 3/8″ Chain-Wheel from Maxwell Marine.  After doing our boat inventory, we noticed that we could also really use an additional piece of equipment to assist us with anchoring and mooring.  That other piece of gear was on our wishlist for a number of months and we finally decided…

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Assembling and Installing Our New Mantus Anchor

Shawn and Our New Mantus Anchor installed on SV Banjo

Assembly and Installation of Our New Mantus Anchor A week ago, Shannon and I upgraded our anchor chain from 5/16″ G-43 High-Test to 3/8″ G-43 High-Test.  We also upgraded our windlass gypsy to the correct size for the new chain.  The only thing left was the anchor, and our ground tackle would be in great shape. It is finally the weekend and we have been eager all week to get our new Mantus Anchor, created and produced by Mantus Marine, assembled and installed aboard Banjo. We opted to purchase the…

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New Anchor Chain, Windlass Upgrade and Mantus Anchor Purchase

Anchor Chain, Windlass Upgrade and Mantus Anchor Purchase In this post, we are going to walk through the steps of performing our anchor chain, windlass upgrade and Mantus Anchor Purchase.  After we purchased Banjo, we saw that a portion of our anchor chain was rusty and needed to be replaced.  We decided, if we were going to replace the existing chain, that we would go ahead and upgrade the chain size at the same time.  Our previous chain consisted of 200-feet of 5/16-inch High-Test G-43.  We made a call to…

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Froli Sleep System Review & Installation

Froli Sleep System Review This article is our Froli Sleep System Review and installation experience. During the winter storm last week, we discovered that cold-weather condensation is an issue in our cabin.  Afterwards, we got online and did some research to find ways other boaters have mitigated the problem.  One such solution, introduced by our friend, Lee on E’Toile De Mer, was the Froli Sleep System.  This nifty example of German Engineering is made up of a combination of inter-locking plastic base templates.  To each template, a molded plastic “spring”…

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