From tinny to timber

Hello! Happy Sunday :)

This week I varnished the starboard half of the lounge, and as hoped it changed the sound of the walls. Being quite thin pine, giving it a knock made its tongues rattle in the grooves of the next. It was tinny, and yeurgh. But with varnish, it sounds much better; woody.

The wood itself also looks nicer, more vibrant:

With that done I fitted the plug sockets and wired in the lights. Unlike the others these are "chip on board" (COB) LED strips, which make them one uniform light instead of the little dots on a normal strip. And the room's only at half brightness, but again it's the vibrancy I'm after and won't shut up about:

The strips are 24VDC, and doing this over I'd figure out how to wire them directly from the 48V battery instead of stepping up to mains AC and back, but the dimmers and light switches are much easier to come by, or at least that's my impression...

Similarly I was looking for an integrated 48V fridge this week (but alas), because on Saturday I finally ordered the kitchen! ETA is the first week of September, and I have flooring to fit, panelling to finish and windows to seal, plus I'm away for a week or 2.

I also connected the water tank sensor to the Victron stuff; I'll have an analog gauge visible but it's handy in the meantime. It was reading 38% full until I moved everything in the lounge to the other side, then it jumped to 41%. And the level calculation is linear; I've set the tank size to 1,500l, so it assumes 10% is 150l, 50% is 750l, etc. That's almost certainly wrong (the tank bottom isn't flat), so when it's empty on a slow day I'll fill it in 50l increments to get the correct measurements (making sure the boat is level!).

And this weekend I was supposed to be in Denmark, but halfway down the M40 George's clutch cable snapped, so I've spent more time on the lounge (saloon?), finishing the port-side panelling and starting on trim:

Then it's varnishing, lights and something about the floor...

Until next Sunday!

- Nick