With winter just around the corner, and concerns over freezing, storms and other damages brought on by the weather, I have started building out a remote monitoring computer system for the boat.

Using an on board network of small computers I plan to create real time monitoring for the following:

• Temperature on board
• Engine room temperature
• Humidity in different parts of the boat
• Battery level monitoring
• Water level in the bilge
• Others

Another goal is that all of the monitoring and network connectivity must be able to run off of the 12v battery bank so that in the even of a power outage on the shore power that we still have monitoring. That way if there is an extended power outage during a below zero winter storm, I will be alerted that I should go and run the generator, start the engines, or start the diesel heater in order to keep the boat warm.

Using my spare time a week into it I already have temperature monitoring running on the boat that then sends the data to my home desktop computer, utilizing the on board internet that I installed earlier in the year. I also have a humidity sensor being tested and ready to take to the boat next to be able to remotely monitor how well the dehumidifier is doing.

As I am writing this post sitting at my desk at home, I can tell that the boat temperature is 13.94C or 57.09F, and it was last updated 1 minute ago. Nowhere near freezing yet.