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Final upgrades before island-hopping days beginLindsay McRoryJanuary 4, 1996 The winter winds of Florida have been dictating our schedule. Four days in a row now we have planned an early start, only to be delayed because of harsh north winds. Rolling with the weather, we booked another two weeks at Titusville Municipal Marina to let more cold fronts blow by. This gives us a chance to get caught up on our last refitting before hitting the Bahamas and then on to the Caribbean. Our current plan is to head as far south as West Palm Beach before heading across to West End in the Bahamas. West Palm Beach is 151 miles--about three days--south of us. Our last major refitting list had to be completed before we crossed over to the Bahamas, so doing it while the weather is bad and moorage is cheap seems like a good plan. Our final list of projects was originally pretty short but has grown substantially over the last two days. Major items that will be added include: Upgraded ground tackle: Add a MAX 20 anchor, another 100 feet of chain, and 250 feet of nylon. This is added to a 45-pound CQR anchor, a 30-pound Danforth anchor, a 250-foot all-chain rode, and 150 feet of nylon with a 20-foot chain leader. It's surprising how many boats head south without much thought for their ground tackle. Cruisers spend much time working on their boats, which represent a considerable investment of their hard-earned dollars. It's a shame when they put it all out on the line (literally!) by using undersized, rusted-out, or inappropriate anchors and rodes. Water maker: Install two PUR 35 water makers. PUR makes the 12-volt DC units capable of producing 35 gallons of freshwater each day from seawater. We decided on two lower capacity units rather than one higher capacity unit for the redundancy. A rainwater catching system will also be added. Wind generator: The decision on what brand of wind generator is still up in the air. Every manufacturer has "mine is better than theirs" plots of power output and wind speeds. The distributors know little of what's inside and generally tout how many units survived hurricanes. Additional battery capacity: Add one more deep-cycle battery to bring our battery bank up to 540 honest amp hours. Power inverter/charger: These inverters convert DC power from the batteries to AC power for the AC appliances. In our case this is only computer gear, a microwave, and refrigeration. When plugged into shore power or using the generator, the system doubles as a sophisticated battery charger. We are hopping we'll only run the generator once every couple of days for a few hours to replenish power. We decided on the Heart 25 amp system with their Link 2000 monitor. By adding this unit we'll have a very reliable but slow and huge ferro-resonant charger. I estimate the Heart charger will bring the batteries to full capacity in one-fourth the time of the old charger. Even though the charge is faster it will be a safer for the batteries because they will not be able to overcharge (gassing). Clothes washer/dryer: Yes, that's right, a clothes washer and dryer. There are a couple of integrated brands specific for boating. I can hear the salty dogs laughing from here. Use a bucket, or throw it in a bag a drag it behind the boat, they say. Kids go through a lot of clothes. When away from facilities, hand washing takes Denise two to three hours every second day. The washer should reduce this to one hour every fourth day. In addition to the big-ticket items, we have a long list of less
glamorous, but necessary, things to do including cleaning out the water
tanks, checking ground tackle and rigging, and a little woodwork. Even
with the amount of work to be done it's still true that "a bad day on the
boat is better than a good day at the office." |
 
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