Position: We are two thirds of the way to French Polynesia. Our position is:
06 30.87S 118 44.34W
*Note: I am told you can copy and paste these coordinates into google earth and it will show you where we are.
Mileage: 1376nm- 1209nm = 167nm
Number of miles to go: 1209nm to go of approx. 3850nm. French Polynesia here we come.
Fish count: The count remains the same. 4 Mahi Mahi, 2 Cero and 6 tuna. One Marlin that we were happy got away! No fishing rods out still. It is much too rough out here to fish safely off the back of the boat, let alone try and clean the fish we catch. So fishing on hold until the waves calm down.
WIND OR WAVES?
Where is that magical lee shore with great wind? Most of the time the stronger the wind blows the bigger the waves. It is just the nature of sailing. We had nice strong winds and were boogying along, chewing up the miles of ocean between us and French Polynesia. But with wind came waves, and as you know, we were getting tossed around a bit.
Well today the seas have eased. We are still getting rolled around, but not violently any more. We can actually get around the boat better. But it does mean the winds are starting to ease as well. We have slowed down to 5-6 knots. Still a respectable speed for an old heavy boat like Spirit of Argo.
The humans are taking advantage of the calmer conditions and cooking up feasts for the Sunday meals. Hope you all are enjoying some time with loved ones too today.
HOW CAN YOU MAKE ELECTRICITY ON A BOAT?
Yesterday I told you how we make electricity on our boat, but there are a lot of different options out there. The options boater take depends on their budget, size of the boat, number of crew aboard and the number of ‘creature comforts’ they want on their boat. I will go through a couple of options for the average cruising boat.
BIG BUDGET – LOTS OF LUXURIES
If your crew need daily showers, love their electrical appliances in the galley and want to run an electrical auto helm at sea, I am afraid you will probably need an inbuilt diesel generator. This is like fitting another engine on your boat and expect a price tag close to! The cost of luxury. But you will have power when ever you need it. You will need to carry more fuel, spares, filter extra and expect higher maintenance costs. If you fit a generator go BIG with the water maker. Fast and furious, so you make your water fast and turn the generator off. It is worth while to also fit alternative energy sources to top up your batteries when you want to turn the generator off….like when you want to go to sleep.
SMALL BUDGET – A FRUGAL LIFE STYLE
The opposite end of the budget range is the cruiser on a tight budget. For them alternative energy sources are more economical and require little or no maintenance costs after installation. Solar panels cost about $1/watt once you add in controller and installation. Wind generators start at $100 and quickly go up in price, but you do get what you pay for.
Unfortunately, I have not met a mono-hull owner (usually the ones on a budget) that have been happy with tow or fin generators on passage. You will also need a wind vane for self steering. All electrical appliances will need to be 12V, smaller and more energy efficient or manual instead. Choose the smallest water maker you can get away with.
WHERE ARE WE?
We are one of the IN BETWEEN cruisers. We have done our best to fit as much solar and wind generation on our boat as we can. We have changed all appliances in the galley to manual, except our one hand blender. We have the tiniest water maker, that draws only 4amps/hr, and we have 12V adaptors for all our computer equipment. But we still fall short on cloudy, windlass days.
Our biggest consumer and luxury item is our fridge and freezer. They consume the most energy. We did down size them and add loads more insulation. We tore out the old cold plates and fitted individual 12V keel cooled plates and smart controllers to the temperature gauges to decrease energy consumption. Still, we run short in the rainy/hurricane season. We usually have to give up the freezer for these months to balance back out again.
We also like to do a lot of boat projects in the ‘off season’ and power tools are a big drain on the batteries. So we have a Honda portable generator we bring out and run when we are in ‘construction’ mode.
Our final power draw is the electric auto-helm. It steers the boat beautifully for us on passage. The solution would be to fit a wind vane. A second rudder that steers by the wind alone. The trouble is the previous owner of the boat build a big strong aluminum arch on the back of the boat to support the dingy, radar, solar panels and wind generators. We have since added more solar panels and wind generators to this and lots more antenna. (See images on previous blog). So we have no room now for a wind vane with out chopping the thing up and finding room on deck for the dingy. So we had to fit a larger alternator and run the main boat engine every few days on passage to top up the batteries. We looked into alternative energy production for the auto-helm. Owners of tow generators complain they skip out of the waves and create tangles in the line. Drop-fin generator owners on mono hulls complain they do not work well on some tacks and cost a fortune. We calculate, if you include the fact we live aboard in the rainy/hurricane season, we spend less than 10% of our cruising time on passage. For that reason we have decided to sacrifice the wind vane idea for the extra solar panels and energy when we are on anchor.
Well I hope all this technical stuff is informative. I will try to find something more fun to discuss in the next blog. HAPPY SAILING! END
