Anchoring LED bow, stern and midship lights - anchoring bow light tested - 2017

As you can see in the video, the blue LED light does work and comes on about the same time as the dock lights at the El Cid Marina where we are currently docked.

We have previously posted about purchasing these in the US and now we are starting to install them. Our test in the picture above was to see if by placing the 4-LED light strip right next to the photo sensor if it would send the photo sensor into a loop by the light telling the sensor it was day then and the photo sensor turning off only to find it is dark and turning on again over and over. However, because the light is blue and possibly dim enough this is not the case. We have limited room under the bow roller to install both as we would like to in the same spot. It all has worked out good.

Here you can see where we attached the photo sensor and the blue led strip. We used 3M 4000 UV Marine Adhesive to hold the photo sensor on the underside of the bow pulpit for our 45 CQR anchor.

Later after removing the tape we wired tied up the wires.

We first were going to run the wire through the hull joint (the space between the cap rail and hull) but it was more complicated. We drilled a pilot hole and got a test wire into the hole a ways but were hitting something. I think it was more teak cap rail. We gave up and went the up-and-over route. We ran the wire up between the Bruce and CQR bow rollers and then past the forestay and then down into the cap rail into the anchor locker. This was easy and is hardly seen.

Up-and-over route with the black wire turning white as it passes the forestay\furler and goes into the cap rail. The white Anchor wire is 16 gauge and is two strand, We picked this wire up at the Chula Vista Marine Swap meet while in the US this year.

 It looks like this will be the perfect brightness for this job 😐

 When the CQR (our main anchor) is dropped the light should shine on the water and possibly the chain. Besides helping the pangas see us, this may shine on the anchor chain while bringing it up. This could help in the O-dark-30 getting under way when washing down the anchor rode while raising the hook. Lots of good possibilities.

 We still need to clean up the 3M 4000 UV Marine Adhesive from under the anchor roller.

The setup I hardly really notice when taken in with the rest of the boat.

 

 And so there was the wiring?? You know sometime one project leads to another😅 Well this is one of those! First off I blew a 3 amp fuse (the glass kind) while messing with the wiring in the chain locker. I have been wanting to replace that fuse holder with a blade fuse holder. We put it in a long time ago when installing the anchor locker lights. They seemed like a good idea at the time. Still maybe are but I used non-water proof marine lights and they long since shorted out. That project we will not jump on now at this time. The wiring for them was ok but when I fastened it, I fastened it with the anchor windless wires in places in the chain locker making trouble-shooting the wiring, if needed, a pain. We have not needed to mess with it till now. Time to re-do this wiring and now I have the time. So as you see above, a new fuse holder..

 This light we liked because it has a built in switch and is red\white. However it is not bright enough. And it should be wired to a terminal block. So yes, we will disconnect it and put in a terminal block and sometime in the future when someone comes to Mexico and can bring us a light, we will get a different one. But for now it is clean-up wiring time. Snake the light wiring separately from the H3 Lewmar Anchor Windless we installed and the foot switches and wired remote ect.

Light wires and windless wires wire-tied together.

 Wire coming in from blue LED and photo sensor.

This handy little water-proof switch we will install in the chain locker for the bow blue LED and photo sensor. The photo sensor turns on the LED blue bow light strip when it gets dark. When it gets light it will turn off the blue LED light. If we want to raise anchor and sail away in the dark or early dark morning as we often do then we do not want the blue LED on when our running lights are. So after raising the anchor we use this switch to turn off the photo sensor thus the light. This switch simply cuts power to them. It also can be used to make the blue LED light strip flash, and it can make it flash at different speeds. The switch can also be used to dim the blue LED light strip if desired. So that's about it and now to finish the installation. The proof of concept has been completed and this all so far seems to be coming together nicely. Now to anchor out and try it out...can hardly wait to get on the hook!