I write this while in Great Harbour Cay (pronounced "key") Berry Islands, Bahamas. Weather is a bit cool and windy.

After over a year of MiJoy sitting at the Fort Pierce City Marina in Florida, we have pulled in the dock lines and made it to the Bahamas. This post will be more of a technical analysis of what we did getting the boat ready both in Kemah, TX several years ago and over the last few months in Ft Pierce, FL.

MiJoy was a 2 year old 50 hour boat when we purchased her in 2012. Previous owner had added a good bimini top but had done very little else to her. This is what we did to get her ready.

A full width clear "plastic" wind screen was added at the front of the bimini. Most true cruising boats have a smaller dodger. In really big waves crashing over the foredeck, the wind screen might collapse. We stay away from that kind of weather. We made zip in side and rear curtains from a 80% sun block material. Kind of like bug screen material. It is used for home windows. Blocking the sun is great. The side screens also block about half of the wind and a lot of the water. We will run them on the windward side of the cockpit when sailing if it is cool. Makes it much more comfortable. Also adds a bit of privacy.

An oversize rocna anchor and plenty of anchor chain was added. Great security when on the hook (anchored) at night. The rocna held in over 50 knots of wind one night at Big Majors.

An Atlantic Tower aluminum arch was installed at the stern of the boat. This is what lifts our dinghy and holds the solar panels and wind generator. Great product at a very good price. I was able to install myself so that saved on cost. Motor lift and storage bracket were also added to the arch.

The story on the water maker is still out. A used system that was installed on the same model of boat as MiJoy was purchased in Kemah. Great to see how someone else installed the system. Once installed, it only made 8 gph of very good water which was down from the 11 gph it should have made. It did give us enough that we could go to the Jumentos in the the very southern Bahamas for weeks and have enough water. JT Halden, the Spectra rep in Fort Lauderdale, rebuilt the high pressure pump and upgraded the 12 vdc pump head and it now appears for the two times we have used it to be making 17 gph. Big improvement. It is a lot of money for a small part of the time that it is used.

The refrigerator and freezer on a sailing boat determine how much "cheap" perishable food you can bring with you from the states or expensive local food you can re-provision with in the Bahamas. The other option to stock it is local caught fish and lobster. I had added insulation around the sides and bottom of the top open freezer before we left Houston. The additional insulation got it cold enough that ice cream would be hard. During our last cruising season, the refrig compressor was running almost all of the time. The outside of the refrigerator box surface was at 55 to 60 degF when the inside was at 40 degF. The insulation had gone bad. As changing the refrig type would have been a major effort, we purchased a replacement for the original a few months ago. It now runs around 35% of the time. Some additional insulation was added to the freezer in Ft Pierce and it is running less. The compressors on these two devices amount for 60% to 70% of the energy we use when on the hook. It's one of those items I am very frequently monitoring.

As a result of the power drain from the refrig and freezer, a wind generator was purchased and it was delivered to us 2 years ago in the Bahamas by S/V Migration. I was hoping for enough power coming in to offset half of the refrig drain at night. The specs on the wind generator would lead you to believe that it would. In practice, it does not. With the lower power consumption of the new refrig, it may make a substantial impact to how much we use during the night. It's all about not draining the batteries too low and getting them back charged with the solar panels during the day. MiJoy carries two 235 watt solar panels on the rear arch. Each panel is connected to it own dedicated charge controller. This gives us the ability if one panel or charger quits, to have half of the system power. Winter time in the Northern Bahamas with the low sun and clouds give us about two thirds of the power we get later in the year when we are further south and the sun in higher.

MiJoy has what I call a tropical shade (canopy) that covers the foredeck back to almost the bimini. It is great at keeping the salon much cooler and keeps the rain from impacting the cabin top. Rain can be very loud when you are trying to sleep. As MiJoy sat in Ft Pierce for 18 months, it keep bird droppings off the deck and reduced our electric bill to keep her inside cool enough that mold did not grow. We did not use the shade a lot when anchoring but it was a good investment.

MiJoy has an IslandTime wifi radio that helps reach out to get an internet signal from marinas or sometimes hotels/bars that are located on the water close to where we anchor. Internet in the Bahamas is pretty expensive thru your phone data plan. This helps keep those costs down.

The first year we cruised, MiJoy carried a 8 ft inflatable bottom dinghy with a 6 hp motor. The small dinghy was very wet when we were traveling thru waves. Joyce would use an umbrella for protection. Most of the time it would not get on plane. A 10 ft fiberglass hull with inflatable tubes on the sides dinghy and a 9.8 hp Tohatsu 4 stroke are now carried. We went over 8 miles on a dinghy trip Friday that we never would have been able to do with the old dinghy. This is our "car". As we do not stay in marinas very much, to get to the grocery store or take the laundry to town, we use the dinghy. It's good that the laundry is dry when you bring it back to the boat.
MiJoy has a 5.5 kw diesel generator. It was used a bit in the past to recharge the batteries. Rarely did we use it to air-condition the boat. It has 600 hours which is pretty low. A third 4d battery was added in Houston to the house bank. With the past issues of frig, without this extra battery, we could have had problems draining down the batteries to a low voltage that would be damaging.

MiJoy carries two 10 pound propane bottles in a locker on the stern of the boat. They power the two burner stove, oven and grille on the stern rail. Propane costs about twice as much here in the Bahamas as in the states and can sometimes be difficult to get. Before leaving Houston, an inverter was installed on MiJoy. It allows the microwave (120 vac) to be run without the generator being on. We also use an electric tea pot to boil water for coffee or as I write this, hot chocolate as it's a bit chilly. Both of these minimizes propane use and heating up the galley (kitchen for you land locked folks). The inverter also has a battery charger built in. When it does come time to run the generator, this charger can put 100 amps into the battery bank. Add in the normal battery charger and sometimes we push 125 amps into the batteries. Running the generator also allows the electric hot water heater tank to be turned on. The diesel main engine has a coolant loop that heats water in the hot water tank when we travel on the motor. A couple of days on the hook not running the engine and that water can be to cool to take a comfortable shower.

Probably a 100 other additions to the boat that were added during the time we were getting ready.