(posted 05/17/24)
Up at 0600, morning routines, and the net. Then more work on the boat. This evening we are going to the potluck.
At this point (1300) we have finished the list on the outside of the boat! We’re down to the inside stuff. One week for the outside, and we have two weeks and five days until we fly back to Nashville. During that time we have scheduled a three night trip to Tequila, Mexico. We will take a bus there and have one night in a Tequila barrel, and two nights in a regular hotel. A couple of tours and then a bus ride back.
We went to the pot luck for dinner between 15 and 20 people and some awesome food! We talked with Robin and Tad about taking a road trip to San Sabastian before heading back to Nashville.
The pictures show only having two panels for the side of the canopy. This is appropriate if we are aboard, and can move them based on which way the sun is from the boat, it is more difficult to get under and onto the boat if the panels are down on the side you are trying to get on. However, in this situation where we will be off the boat for a few months, we would rather have panels all the way around. Reneé has started the process of getting those two panels made.
WOW!! Neil sounds like sailing is a lot of work especially when you receive 12 days of history all at once. Sounds like you have had more than your share of problems between the frig and the electrical. That’s pretty critical cooking 30 amp breakers. Maybe I should I should send Julian Carrillo down to help he was an old EM, and he speaks Spanish. When do you plan on going out again about October? I noticed you mentioned living in Nashville. Did you sell your place on the canals in Florida? Did you know Dennis Wilcockson is not far from Nashville? Best of luck in your travels.
Yes, we did sell the house in Florida. The property taxes were going up at a ridiculous rate. There were other issues that convinced us that Florida was not the right place for us. We sold it to our tenants, they had rented it for 6 years, so they certainly had no surprises.
We have a grandchild due in November. We are planning on getting back to the boat in December.
We actually live in Savannah, Tennessee. This is on the southern border where Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee come together. About 2 hours away from Nashville, but it is the nearest big airport.
Regarding problems and boats, they pretty much go hand in hand.
Consider the humidity and salt air, along with that there are things that make boats just push the edge. One is that the automotive industry settled on 12 volts for the electrical system. This is “ok” for the cars where the only “big” load is the starter motor. But on our boat, we have five “big” loads:
1, 2, & 3: we have three electric winches. They each have a motor about 1/4 of the size of a starter.
4: we have an anchor windlass, that has no problem picking up our anchor and chain (88 lbs + 2.5 lbs/ft) even when we have anchored in 40 or 50 feet of water. I think the breaker for this is 30 amps, but might be larger.
5: We have a bow thruster. 7 horse power.
The formulas and conversion factors are: 1 hp=746 watts, power=voltscurrent so,
(7746)/12 = 435 amps
No, I am not kidding that’s theoretical perfection. Which means that it almost certainly takes more current than that. When you put that much load on a battery it impacts the voltage, when the voltage goes down, the current goes up etc. there’s not a breaker for the bow thruster, just a 700 amp fuse. The battery is mounted about the middle of the boat, and the thruster is probably 12-15 feet forward which means the wire from the battery to the thruster is probably 20 feet each way. Since the hull is fiberglass and non conductive the wire has to go both ways. It’s mult-strand and about the diameter of a penny. So, pretty pricey!
The charging systems we have are:
1100 watts of solar, that’s two panels, each going to its own controller. A maximum of about 45 amps each.
The alternator on the engine at about 110 amps.
The main battery charger at 120 amps maximum.
One thing more to consider, we upgraded to Lithium batteries, (there is a recommended max charge of 0.5C, even though the batteries are good to 1 C) which means that they can take a bunch of current.
We have 600 ah so for us 600 amps is C. So, we should limit our charging current to 300 amps from all sources, but if you add up all of my sources (110+120+45+45) I can “only” get to a theoretical maximum of 320 amps. Both the alternator and the battery charger have temperature monitors that limit their output. The solar typically only gets to a maximum of about 75%. So I don’t worry about too much current.
All of these high amp sources and loads require pretty large wires.
High current flow results in lots of loss in the form of heat. An example is that the ceiling lights were halogen 10 watt bulbs. Almost 1 amp per bulb. The salon had 9 of these bulbs on one circuit, the heat on the fixtures over time caused them to be brittle. So, we are replacing them.
The refrigerator is 19 years old, has had some questionable maintenance over the years resulting in air getting inside the Freon. Originally there was no dryer in the system. At this point we have some moisture in the refrigerator system (remember that humidity I mentioned earlier) that moisture when it gets to the end of the capillary tube at the cold plate in the fridge and the Freon expands and the temperature drops and the moisture freezes and blocks the flow. This is what we are dealing with. The dryer costs about $170 but will be more with taxes and there will be a delay getting it here and installed.
Bottom line, the big issues with a boat are: age, humidity, salt, low voltage and high current (which causes heat related problems).