You have the power ... or do you? Erie Canal.
05 May 2018 | St Augustine
Sunny, breezy, near 80.
The St Augustine mooring field has filled up. Glad I reserved when I did and came early. Today Pat arrives, and then come several guests during the week. I notice guests only come if Pat is here ... hmmm.
Batteries and power management - do you have a handle on yours? Unless you plan on stopping at marinas all the time, you will be off the grid and on your own. Have you spent a weekend on the boat unplugged? Do you know how many amp hours you use in a 24 hour period? Do you have a way to put those back in every day? If you sail at night, how much more do you use? Do you have a good battery monitor so you know what is going on and you know the state of your batteries at all times? Over 24 hours, if my battery voltage drops to around 12.2, the batteries are 50% discharged. If the voltage is around 12.75, when there is not much load (the fridge is not running), they are only 10% discharged. I can get 1000 life cycles at 50%, but the batteries will last five times longer if they only discharge 10%. I only have solar, no wind generator, so I want the batteries to only lose 10% overnight and I want them fully charged by sunset, plus all the extra juice I want to use while the sun is out, like charging my devices and using my inverter as needed, etc. Using a laptop charger that plugs directly into a 12 volt source, skipping the A/C inverter will reduce your power consumption. So will USB plugs connected to you batteries. Your power management is pretty key to a successful cruising experience.
The Erie Canal is open May 18 - October 10. There is an app for that. The canal is free this year for pleasure craft. A key navigation/information link is
http://www.canals.ny.gov/maps/
Sign up for email alerts about pertinent canal issues. I highly recommend doing this.
http://www.canals.ny.gov/wwwapps/tas/tascanals/index.aspx