01/01/2009, Ft Myers
One of the unseen challenges people face when going cruising is that they suddenly become their own utility company. Most of us take for granted that the lights will come on when we flip the switch and our food will stay cold as long as we remember to put it back in the fridge. But here on the boat life is not so predictable. Leave those lights on long enough and you will be sitting in the dark with dead batteries.
There are many ways to create power aboard and the Omarsea has several. Besides the alternators on the main engine and the wind generator there is our auxiliary diesel generator.
Purchased as surplus from Desert Storm this tiny one cylinder marvel is a highly efficient power generator. Last month I was fortunate to find a Balmar 12v power regulator on ebay, new in the box, for very little money. This is the brains of our genset as it allows me to set how fast I want to charge our batteries.
Then we purchased a new 160 Amp alternator from an excellent vendor in North Carolina who had the unit in our hands the next day.
With a simple wiring bypass of the internal regulator I had the Balmar unit installed and we were producing all the electricity we could use. Not since we were down island last year with the wind blowing a constant 30 Kts have we had this luxury. Ahh - light is good.
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10/01/2007, Portland
The Omarsea got an autopilot this week!
Thanks to a very generous gift from my father Dan Trefethen, Jean and I were able to purchase an autopilot for the Omarsea.
For those who have never been offshore, a boat like the Omarsea must have a watch 24 hours a day when sailing the oceans of the world. In the past this required someone to man the helm for 2 to 4 hours at a time in all kinds of weather. Often exposed to cold spray, extreme winds and unable to leave the helm for various duties.
After our many years of experience aboard our first boat the Southern Toy ,Jean and I realized how much better it is to let a machine steer. While the person on watch stays warm and dry under the spray screen/ Dodger keeping a lookout for shipping traffic, doing navigation and log entries as well as making the odd cup of tea the auto pilot keeps the vessel on course.
On the Omarsea the kids will do watches with Jean and I up until 10:00pm and then we Adults will do the night shifts. Late evening is a great time to learn the constellations, take moon and star shots with the sextant and develop nautical skills like learning the light patterns that different ships display at night.
The freedom to do many of these things is only possible with the use of an autopilot like the Raymarine unit in the picture.
The package contains a central core processor programmed to control a vessel up to 77,000 lbs.
There is a fluxgate compass to read direction electronically and a rudder angle indicator that tells the processor where the rudder is in relation to the centerline of the boat.
This unit can and will be combined with our Gps unit and automatically steer from point a to point b.
I want to thank my Dad for his wonderful gift !
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10/01/2007, Portland
As many of you know Jean and I decided to install a water maker onboard the Omarsea. This will supply all our fresh water needs for the next 3 years.
Good quality fresh water is somewhat difficult to get in many places we plan to visit. Often water is captured from rain and stored in large cisterns and then sold to passing cruisers on the docks.
The system is simplicity itself. A high pressure pump is used to drive seawater at 800psi through a one way membrane made by the Dow corporation. Coming out of the membrane is 99.99% pure water. Better than our own Bull Run resevior water here in Portland.
In the photo (Center) you can see the blue high pressure pump astride the ingenious "Carriage" designed and built by Dave.
Dave, an airline pilot and ex-mechanic spent many an hour creating just the right mechanisim to allow the pump to be serviced in the back of the crowded engine space. He and his drill press were an invaluable resource getting our water maker up and running. Many thanks Dave!
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09/09/2007
This map from Google Earth shows our proposed cruising route. Begining in the British Virgin Isles we will travel in the wake of Capt. Jack Sparrow and his crew aboard the Black Perl. Winding our way down through the Lesser Antilles isles to Grenada and then returning North the ST Croix.
It should be noted that we will be stopping at Treasure Isle and plan on boarding the infamous HMS William Thornton, a nortorious pirate vessel frequently moored in the bight.
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09/09/2007, Portland
G'Day Mates, We are counting down to our departure in November. Big news so far is our homeschool is a big success. The kids love working on math, spelling/grammer,reading and getting out for feld trips. Jean has done a fantastic job of evaluating the kids skills and matching them up with materials that really help each childs learning style.
In other news we are building a generator/watermaker for the Omarsea. From Plans found on the internet we have used the power of Ebay to get the various parts we need to design and build our very own diesel system from scratch. Here are some of the photos of the unit under construction.
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OmarSea is a Beneteau Oceanus 510. At 51' she has 5 cabins, 5 heads, a large cockpit, and many of the ammenities you would expect from the Beneteau flagship. From left to right are the crews quarters, forward cabins, heads, solon & galley, aft heads and cabins.
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Inside the boat is a kitchen called the "galley" and a livingroom/dinning room called the "solon". This is a very spacious area on OmarSea with comfortable seating for 8 around the table, a fridge and separate freezer keep food and there is a place to spread out charts, send email and contact the outside world via Single Sideband radio.
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