The wintery urge to hunker down

Hello! Happy Sunday :)

It's been one of those weeks (the boat looks identical). On Monday I did empty the engine drip tray, which left me with a load of oily water to dispose of. It still needs a clean and wipe down, then I'll do an oil change & service before winter sets in.

Then, work! I started something new a few weeks ago, on a quest to build a distributed virtual power plant, and I've been having a whale of a time. Besides, I ran out of coinage and spending anything on the boat feels bad. That could also be cope; honestly I cannot be arsed, and I'd much rather do programming.

That said I seem to go in cycles, and historically I've been quite hard on myself for Not Being Productive (according to my whims of the moment), and I've become better at playing with that tension and letting inspiration run its course. Spending a minute to make some money is good (there're still lots of expensive things I need to buy!), and I have faith in future flurries.

Speaking of power plants, I'd missed a setting on the inverter/charger so shore power kept the battery at 100% without letting it discharge, wasting precious solar energy! With that changed, it now drops to 40% before recharging (LiFePO4 FTW).

Yet production is still abysmal:

But it adds up, that's a good few cups of tea. What I'd love to do is only charge the battery when electricity prices are low and/or negative, but we're on a painfully high fixed tariff here. The prices want to be free.

On Friday we had torrential rain, the first good stress test of my window sealing, and unfortunately I found 2 drips by the kitchen. But then, 2 drips — I think back to Old Katona with leaks everywhere, and the luxury this now is.