12/01/2009, Do not go cruising without it
Without a doubt one of the standard pieces of cruising equipment we see on cruising boats, is a Honda 2000 generator. Available online for $850, it provides a huge bang for your buck when you consider other options for your power needs. We have 260W of solar ($1200) along with a 105Amp alternator on our main engine ($400), but it's the Honda generator that provides most of our cruising power. Running you main engine just to charge your batteries is, in our opinion, flat out crazy. It adds heat to your boat cabin, eats up your time intervals between oil and filter changes, and in addition to being an inefficient way to add Amps back to your battery bank, its simply annoying to listen to your loud diesel engine when trying to enjoy a quite anchorage. We are big fans of solar, but though all the hype we have run across very few boats that can supply all their power needs though solar alone. Sure some hermit that reads at night with a blue LED flashlight taped to his ball cap can pull it off, but really folks, we will leave the stories of proud hardships behind. We run lots of computers for blog updating, home school, SSB email and Video editing work and every little 4Amp draw results in fewer amps in your battery bank by the next morning. Solar alone just isn't the answer in our view.
What does work, not only for us, but many of the cruisers we meet is plugging our shore power battery charger into our Honda 2000 generator. We have an Iota 75Amp battery charger ($350) and the Honda has no problem supplying the charger with all the power it needs to pump 75Amps back into our battery bank. At that high rate of recharge ability, we can keep our batteries happy with just an hour/day of generator time. Not only that, but once the battery charger is tapering off the input to the batteries to below 25Amps, we can flip on our dual mode hot water heater (electric and engine heat exchanger powered) and have a full supply of hot water for our daily crew showers.
There's also the benefit of having an easy source of 120V power aboard. We do have a 3000W 12v to 120V inverter aboard THIRD DAY, but there are many times we fire up the generator to run our power tools. While in the Puerto Escondido boat yard for new bottom paint, we used the Honda as our exclusive source of 120v power, because the yard did not have 120v power available. Running next to all the boats in the yard were their Honda 2000 Generators. Michael, from the SV Albatros, was still using his Honda that twice sunk to the bottom of the ocean! Both times, he was able to rinse it off with fresh water and get it back running again with out having to order any replacement parts, so durability is a bit of an understatement.
In our last 14 months of cruising, we have not met a cruiser that didn't either have a Honda generator or wished that they did. You can take away my $1200 of solar, but you'll have to fight me to give up my Honda!
| Cruising Mexico |
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11/29/2009, It is easy, so where is everyone?
It's confession time, as I sit here in Ciao Molina across the street from Marina de La Paz with a beer and high speed internet. The first confession is that I'm not really here for beer or internet, because we have both of those on the boat, the truth is (and I can only say this because I know Lori doesn't read the blog) that I'm here for an order of Papas Fritas, aka French Fries! With that confession out of the way, let move on to the real issue for today, the fact that despite all the hype, cruising is really easy.
I know, I know, I'm risking my membership in good standing with the brotherhood of cruisers in admitting this, but the truth is, this cruising gig isn't as hard as many want to admit. Really, it's just like anything else that when viewed form a distance seems impressive and difficult but the reality is that anyone with the desire can cast off cruising and not risk the overstated probability of shipwreck. After 14 months of cruising, we have learned quite a bit that makes us better seaman and cruisers today, but the truth is everyday there are cruisers casting off on their dream cruise with less experience and knowledge than we had on day one, and the odds are on their side that they won't kill themselves or lose their vessel.
Maybe it's the nautical sailing terms that make what we're doing sound more impressive. When we talk about "reaching on a starboard tack" or "beating to windward under a partially furled headsail, doused main, and reefed mizzen" it sounds like we know what we are doing, simply because we know a few fancy words and phrases. I don't want to give the impression that we didn't have any basic seamanship skills when we cast off, because both Lori and I did take ASA sailing courses 104 and 105 which are basic keelboat handling and navigation, but we were in no way the image of seasoned salts with years of sailing experience. To the contrary, when we cast off on September 28th 2008, we had owned THIRD DAY for less than 3yrs and had only been sailing for 4, which was when we first hatched our crazy scheme of sailing south.
Think of cruising as something like an RV trip, but instead of returning home on Sunday afternoon, you just continue on to a new destination. Things break, you fix them, it's as easy as that really. The fact that the sea is continually conspiring to pull THIRD DAY to the bottom is no different than how the road continually beats up the RV, generating a repair list after each outing. The RV-Cruising comparison fits in so many ways and if you can survive a family outing in an RV, you could certainly survive life aboard a cruising boat. Sure there are these white things that get pulled up big polls on the boat to catch the wind, but don't let them scare you because there is also a diesel beast down in the belly of the boat to move you along, just like an RV. The further I travel down this RV-Cruiser comparison road, I realize that I better take an off ramp and exit before I end up making the argument that the crew of THIRD DAY are trailer trash. I much prefer the term Cruiser Trash as it's known out here on the water.
| Cruising Mexico |
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11/28/2009, what it's like
A few weeks ago, the crew of THIRD DAY spent a few days waiting out a Norther in the inner harbor at San Francisquito. The wind wasn't too bad really, but 25kts over 4 days in the Sea of Cortez can really make for some ugly seas, so we waitied. We were perfectly comfortable and had a good time with our friends Windfall and Gemini as we waiting out the wind.
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