Xantrex inverter power!

Victory! In some small way at least.

The tale of our trials and errors with batteries leans heavily toward the error column. But we have come a long ways.

On our first boat, the Fitzcarraldo, we had a short that caused a severe and quick drain on the 2 small batteries that were installed. We had moved aboard knowing nothing about marine electronics. I had to look up which was AC and which was DC. Finding the electric short was a challenge nothing short of gargantuan.... we never did find it. So, the entire time we had that boat, we had to spend our time at sea and at anchor with no lights. Headlamps and lanterns only. It was kinda fun, more like camping.

Then we sold that boat (the new owner has since patched up the electrical issues and has the Fitz working nicely). We bought Madrigal which had a nice new electrical system, but again, two small batteries. We would run low on power quickly, and I eventually figured out that the alternator had been slowly dying all along too. In the course of installing various components I've learned a lot. A ton really, about marine electronics. I've practically memorized the first few chapters of Nigel Calder's Mechanical and Electrical Manual.

That brings us to last spring when a neighbor boater was updating his battery bank. He sold us a set of 4 trojan 6v golfcart batteries totaling 450 12v amhours. Fantastic! I built a new battery box under the steps and setup a new installation for a house bank. Those worked great for the summer, but we could tell they were weakened with age. They wouldn't hold a charge nearly as long as they should. Towards the end of summer www.defender.com had a good deal on a Xantrex Freedom 1800 inverter. We knew that we were going to want invertibility sooner than later so we went ahead and purchased it. We never hooked it up though, for a few reasons. 1. It was the end of summer, we were going to be hooked to shore power for the next 6 months. 2. We were broke and couldn't afford the $$$$ wiring components for such an install. 3. We new the batteries were not so hot and that an inverter would just drain the daylights outta them in no time.

So there it sat. This beautiful new inverter/charger, hanging still and lifeless on the bulkhead I'd mounted it upon. Oh well. We got to stare at this new decoration all winter long, wondering what it would be like to have a boat in which stuff actually worked.

Well, with spring coming along we've been frantically trying to get the boat prepared and re-commissioned for the new year. This is happening in conjunction with the realization that Jenny is going to be quitting her library job in order to index full time. eek! That is so great, and so intimidating all at once. It's great because it gives us freedom and time, two things we value greatly. But we will have to stay tied to the dock so that we can keep laptops, phones, pda's, printers, and computers up and running.... unless... we get the inverter installed.

So, I made a trip out to Atlantic Battery in Watertown MA last week. I'd talked to a few local marine mechanics who all told me to go there for the best deal. It was truly a nifty little shop. It's been there for over 75 years. They had antique batteries laying around and a real "decades past" kinda feel to the shop in general. I did get a good deal on 4 brand new 6 volt golf carters. This time totaling 420 amphours. I exchanged the old ones to avoid a core fee and went home to layout the inverter install. All the wires and breakers and other junk arrived on Friday and I spent yesterday with my brain in a jumble trying to pretend that I'm a master marine electrician. I had a bit of help and advice from Fitzcarraldo Dave. It took me until 10pm before I was finally ready to head outside and throw the main breaker on the pedestal.

It worked like a charm.

It charges at 40 amps and allows the shore power to flow through the unit while docked. When I unplug the boat, it kicks over to inversion mode and our AC panels works as if we were still plugged in. I can turn off individual breakers for various systems so as to avoid drainage-- I can turn them all off if I wish, and I likely will quite often. But the main goal was achieved. All of our AC outlets work as if we were docked. Computers, printers, phones and all can be charged, used and abused.

We have a small crappy 2-stroke generator that we got as a hand-me-down. It is made by all-power and can be purchased from Northern Tool.

It is loud, smelly, and annoying, but it will have to do. Someday maybe we'll strike it rich and we can get a nice, new, quiet, suitcase-style Honda generator and a system of solar and wind power to back everything up.... in the meantime, oh well, 2-strokes are fun :)

So there we have it. We've went from headlamps only with a dead battery system on our first boat to a full inversion 1800 watt self contained system of good clean power on Madrigal.

I, for one, consider this a victory.

-Justin

Rocna

Thanks to the anonymous poster on our blog back in February who pointed out that the rocna's were selling far cheaper than they were a year or two back.

In preparation for my new endeavor as a full time freelance indexer, we're setting the boat up to 1) be easier for me to work on, 2) be easier for me to work on anywhere at all, and 3) be a little more self sufficient so that we're spending a chunk of change now, but in the long run we'll save money. Fancy that.

We're doing a few really cool things...one of which (if you haven't guessed) is the purchase of a rocna!

A stock photo. We'll take pictures of ours soon.

This puppy will let me index with ease from any nook and cranny in the ocean, without worrying so much if our anchor is holding. We also have a couple of danforth anchors for backup.

Many more projects are in the works - we'll keep you updated.

more on self sufficiency

Self sufficiency is a way of life. It is sometimes habit, sometimes obsession. I'm always interested in finding new ways of living as off-grid as possible. If I could, I'd have a garden growing up on deck, (And really, I suppose in these winter months when we're all bubbled up, it might work just fine), I'd make all of our food from scratch, I'd sew all of our clothing, hand wash the laundry, etc. etc.

We try to think of self sufficiency as a whole - you can't forget about water, food, warmth (or cooling off, which is hard to think of at this point in the winter). And then there are the little things - showering, hair cutting, sewing, etc.

In many ways, we are practicing self sufficiency on a daily basis. When the boat breaks, we fix it. We've never hired anyone to come in to figure out what's going on. When the problem requires some obscure tool, he walks the docks looking for one, unless it is something that we'll need many times in the future.




With our small icebox, it's hard to keep fresh vegetables. The fresh spinach touches the ice plate and gets slimy before we know it. As an alternative, we grow sprouts. It's fun and easy, and they are so delicious. I use a very small jar and a special lid that helps with rinsing them but really I don't think the lid is necessary. Mind you, we do still buy veggies, but these are great when we're running out.

Two days after our wedding, I discovered a very sad thing - I am allergic to hops. It is my belief that I have always been, but on that particular day, things decided to go full force against me and I haven't been able to drink beer since. We've searched the city high and low for hops-free beer and (until last week) it was nowhere to be found. (Last week, we discovered that Boston Beer Works often brews their own hops-free beer!!) As it is, Boston Beer Works will not always be close at hand, and really it would be quite fun attempting to make our own. That's where the Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible comes in. Thus far we have not attempted to make anything from it, but it's a darn amusing read in the meantime.


Oh and I almost forgot! A couple of years back, I bought my dad a cheese making kit. I made mozzarella with him and it was wonderful. Apparently I just keep talking about it to Justin, because he bought me a kit for Christmas! He bought me the "hard cheese" kit and it'll take two months for our cheese to cure. I'm sure I'll blog about it when it's ready.

Justin and I have been together five years, and in those five years, I've only gotten a professional haircut once. I think it was about 6 months into our relationship and when he saw it (and found out how much I paid) he said "well, I could do that!" I chose to believe him at the time and it was definitely no mistake. This boy could make a killing at cutting hair!


For some reason, he also trusts me with the task of cutting his hair. I really keep trying to tell him that this is a bad idea, but every so often he asks for my help. Other times he just does it himself which really is probably a much better option.



For Christmas, I asked for, and received Don Casey's Canvaswork and Sail Repair book (Thanks mom and dad!) This is a fantastic resource for us because anything relating to canvas or sails is very expensive and we'd rather just do this stuff ourselves too. The year before, my parents bought this sewing machine for me for Christmas:


It has been a great tool to have on the boat, even though the beast is 50 lbs. We store it behind the companionway stairs, so when I want to sew it's kind of an ordeal. It's also difficult for me to hoist this thing up on the table, but somehow I do it. Last year when our sail had a tear, we were able to get a great deal on sailcloth from Bacon Sails and I went to work repairing it. It was an easy repair until I got to the fourth side, and then it took me probably an hour to stitch a little less than two feet of material. Otherwise this is such a great (old) machine and I love how it just powers through every project I work on with it. I also fixed our friend Mark's canvas, as he had quite a few holes that needed patching. That also went well, but I learned the hard way that you have to just put your foot down with the pedal and don't try to do things slow. The needle broke in half and flew into my eye and I had a chunk of metal in it for a few minutes. In the end I decided to not go to the doctor, but it definitely crossed my mind!

Ok ok, back on track with self sufficiency. A major component to self sufficiency is creating your own power, but these are also generally the most expensive components! We don't use a lot of power (we don't have many fancy electronics, we rarely use our GPS, we don't have wind speed controls or a depth sounder or anything like that) but we do have our fridge system and Justin enjoys having the lights on regardless of where we are (I wouldn't care one way or another - I think headlamping it is pretty fun!)

We do have a small solar panel, and are looking into buying a couple more. We were actually given the solar panel we have now (for free!) but will probably have to throw down a few hundred bucks when we decide to get some more. We're looking into "solar panel kits" in which you build your own panel, therefore saving a bit of change. It'd be neat to see how they really work anyway, so we may end up doing that.

The other component is wind power, and we'd like to get a kiss generator (or two). Again, these are expensive but between the solar and the wind, we'd be able to live on anchor if we chose without really having to worry about running out of power.

Another thing we'd like to do is install more water tanks in the boat. We currently hold around 18 gallons of water and we have the space to probably hold close to 50 or so. We'd also make a rain catching system so we'd be able to fill the tanks with rain water for dishes, shower, etc. The neat thing about this is that we'd be able to keep the rain water tanks separate from our current tank, so we'd still have one full of fresh, acid free rain.

And then, there's one last thing that I'd love to try next winter to try and save some money on electricity. In searching for solar powered gadgets, I came across a "solar space heater". What?! Really?! I think that's fantastic. The best thing about this one is that it costs next to nothing to build. I really just found out about this yesterday so I haven't read about any real life accounts of how they work. Guess I'll just have to try it out myself!

All in all, we're certainly not self sufficient. We're tied to a dock with an endless supply of power. We use the boathouse for showers, laundry, etc... but if I had the time, (and if we were cruising) I'd definitely want to hand wash our clothes. We definitely don't have the self sufficiency we want yet, but it does cost money to buy some of the things we'd like to have, and we're certainly on our way to being able to afford to get these things.

Hopefully by this time next year our list of things we want will be much smaller and we'll be much closer to being self sufficient. Hopefully we'll be enjoying the sunset with homemade crackers, cheese and hops-free beer.