Sailor Single-handing to Hawaii with Zebra H501s

[skyfire]

good to know your friend is still doing well, and the zebralights are still serving him well.
best of luck to him. what a great adventure!

[Illum]

He tells me that singlehanders abide by the rule that "Two is one, and one is none." I think he has lots of redundancies on his boat, assuming that one will break.

Break? Not likely... Sink? very likely, did you convince him to lanyard it even if its on his head?

[varuscelli]

Hopefully those last few weeks in Hawaii has help to refresh his batteries (both literally and figuratively) for the continued journey.

[Bolster]

Break? Not likely... Sink? very likely, did you convince him to lanyard it even if its on his head?

LOL, well I guess I'm assuming that it doesn't matter how many spares he has, if he sinks. I'm not exactly sure how he has his... I forget what he calls it, his "overboard bag" packed. Since the two ZLs get constant use, (often he wears both) I doubt he has one "put away" for emergency use. He's recently purchased himself a rather nice (and pricey) liferaft, a Switlik Pod4.

He's on his way to Alaska now. I think that's what motivated the liferaft purchase. No more warm seas to be adrift in.

Regards Hawaii, I think the first week or two were relaxing, but now he's back to the heavy work of preparing for the next leg. It really is an amazing lot of work to sail. I never realized it. The guy actually gets little rest. And lots of times he'd *like* to get rest, the sea keeps him awake. Listening to him talk it seems like one protracted sleep-deprivation experiment to me.

[varuscelli]

He's recently purchased himself a rather nice (and pricey) liferaft, a Switlik Pod4.

Looks to me like a sound investment in one's future should the circumstance ever arise for its need. Very cool looking pod.

[Bolster]

And finally, a failure as he heads from Hawaii to Alaska:

"At about 2:30am an approaching squall showed clearly on the screen. While on deck one of my Zebra head lamps started to cycle through dim-to-bright levels over and over–must have gotten soaked in the deluge. Attempting to dry it out today. Bubbles coming from the LED lens. This a first."

Sad it had to fail on his first night out on this long leg. I think it put in about 14 months of seagoing use.

In this situation would you douse it with fresh water before trying to dry it?

[varuscelli]

Damn! What a crummy turn of events. You have to wonder what went wrong with the lamp. I'm imagining that it has gotten wet plenty of times on the trip (at a guess). Still...water bubbling from the LED lens? I wonder if the water got in via the lens or perhaps somehow during a battery change in wet weather or something? I can't imagine he'd be careless about battery changes...but that would likely mean a "waterproof" failure...but only from getting really wet and not actual prolonged submersion...(?).

Again -- damn!

[Owen]

In this situation would you douse it with fresh water before trying to dry it?

I don't think that will fix it. The problem(in my two similar experiences) is that the light is no longer waterproof, and water is getting in around the emitter, so even if it does dry out and start working, it will just happen again the next time the light gets wet.
The reason I don't trust the newer designs is that I don't know what's under those press fit parts in terms of waterproofing. I just know that whatever was under the emitter/optics of the older models did not last much longer than a year for whatever reason. 14 months sounds about right for my H60w dying under conditions(rain) it had faced regularly throughout its life, and the older H30w failed the first time it got used in heavy rain. Pure speculation, but I have been wondering for awhile now if some sealant or seal material is deteriorating and allowing water inside. Anywhere on his route he can pick up another headlamp? It's not going to be funny if his other one fails, too.

[psychbeat]

Shoot- I just picked up an h501w on the MP ...
It's one of the newer ones with blinky modes I think.

I'm worried it's going to get wet if I use it this winter as a close work light building trails...

Wonder if maybe a little silicone around the optic would help.. Or just mess up the beam.

Hmmm

[Bolster]

Interesting, Owen. I'm in "sailmail" contact with him (data transferred over radio waves) so discussions are brief and I don't have details yet. Plus the ZL to him is a minor distraction, as the major concern is debris in that area from the Japanese tsunami. There's a big, big stretch of empty space between where he is now (N of Hawaii) and Alaska. Based on your insight, if he does get the ZL working again, I'm going to recommend he place a bead of silicone sealant around the outside edge of the lens.

EDIT: Ha, Psychbeat came up with the same solution while I was posting.

[srfreddy]

Maybe ocean water dried on the oring and like, corroded/ cracked/dried it? I'm not sure what effect salt has on orings though.

[psychbeat]

Hmm-
I dont know if I want to b the first to try the silicone ...
These are collectors items now

I suppose I could scrape any extra off if it was messing w the beam.

[eh4]

the constant cycling made me think that the rubber boot might have failed, oh well who knows, wasn't there.

[Illum]

LOL, well I guess I'm assuming that it doesn't matter how many spares he has, if he sinks.

Well, I was referring to the light, but I guess if he sinks having the lights lanyarded to him would be even more important. That pod-4 is a nifty designed dinghy

[Bolster]

A response to my ZL question, so, for your consideration:

I was surprised at this problem since it's not even close to the first time they've been wet. Am fairly certain it was fresh water that got in; I was in the rain at the time. Because it was cycling through low to high, I assume it was a switching issue--i.e. water got to the switch. I took it inside and next day (when I had time to worry about it) put a fresh batt in, put the light on high and let it go. As you know, when on high the light gets warm to hot. Speed dry-out. While in this cycle I noticed water bubbles coming from between the glass lens and its casing. Did this twice. Then let it sit most of the day. Seems fine now. Stupidly I have not marked my two zebras so I can tell them apart and I think I've now mixed up the two. That was dumb. Will mark them right now. More as develops here. Now wishing I had a third as backup. These things are more important to me than a knife.

Regards your previous questions:
Are you seeing condensation inside the lens?
-No.
Was this water ingress from outside, or by chance did you have the battery bay open at some point?
-I never open the battery bay. I squeeze the batteries into the bay by using the slot between the light lens and the switch! Which is a polite way of saying you have a chance to take that question back.

As he has several thousand miles to go, I'd like to generate some recommendations here, so let's "crowd source" this and see what solutions we might come up with.

Possible fixes that occur are:

- if could find a circular tool of the correct diameter (such as a socket), use it to press down the chrome bezel around the switch boot to make certain the bezel's seated as far down as possible;
- lay a bead of silicone around the outside of the switch boot-seems the switch boot range of movement is small enough it could probably stand to have that crevice siliconed;
- lay a bead of silicone around the edge of the lens, although if the light wets again, how would it dry? It sounds like vapor was escaping from the lens/body junction. Or do you do it anyway?
- put a sandwich bag around the light and twistee it in place.

Other ideas?

[varuscelli]

I was busy composing a suggestion about using sealant around (or even over and around, "smeared" for coverage) the switch boot...dedending on what kind of sealant (silicon or other) that he might have on board, but didn't see you had expanded on the original post.

[Bolster]

So maybe slather sealant across the entire switch boot and bezel, all the way across. Why not—the button depression is so minor, I'll bet silicon sealant would flex enough. OK, good. We're not worried about aesthetics here.

Now about the lens itself...I was contemplating a what-if: what if you cut a circle of adhesive tape slightly smaller than the lens diameter, and applied it dead-center on the lens. Then you silicone around the edges of the lens. Then, when the silicone is curing, you pull up the tape (with tweezers, what have you) off the center of the lens. Might give you a neat silicone seal around the edges, while leaving the center clear? Could potentially cut down the beam angle.

Currently he's on a 6-8 foot sea, so that sort of delicate surgery would have to wait for a calm. So I'm recommending a sandwich baggie and twistee for now.

AND we have the added complication he doesn't know which of the two lights it was. So just "waterproof" them both to be safe, and replace them when he makes landfall? (He needs H502s anyway because he needs the battery-test function and the new super-low.)

[Bolster]

Update:

Busy day here, so no chance to contemplate. Did take a gander and both lights show salt water crusting around the outside edge of the lens...just a tiny bit...but both lights look absolutely clean inside, no corrosion. Not sure either means much. Plenty silicon and may wash them up and apply some between lens and bezel as a stop gap. Let me ponder a day or two, but am thinking having you send an extra light to [wife] is a good idea. I very much like having two. But Zebra, not the SF Saint. Not interested in having to supply different types of batts.

[Bolster]

Final Update:

The voyage is now over, he's returned to San Francisco after sailing about 12,000 miles alone: from SF to Polynesia to Hawaii to Alaska, and back to SF. BOTH of his Zebras and all his Eneloops and his Powerex charger made it back in good shape and are ready for another voyage.

[lightcycle1]

I thought his boat would sink, him get stung by jellyfish and eaten by sharks and die which should have happend according to a bunch of ZL naysayers here.

Glad he made it through. Hell of an adventure and a testament to ZL durability. As with any mechanical or electrical device, no matter how pricey or highly touted, an occasional
failure is bound to happen.

[psychbeat]

Here here! for vintage zebras!!