Gen Set Bizzniss

Well you would think that it would be as easy as 1 2 3, but nope. After doing some quick research we decided to go with the Honda 2000 suitcase generator. We needed it for those days when we are only getting a few hours, if any, of direct sun and no wind.
Since leaving China Camp we had virtually no sun and very little wind so as stated in an earlier post we were able to keep the priorities going but not the luxuries.

Sure we could go without alot of those luxuries, but if we don't have to? Well enter the Honda stage left.

On our way down the coast we ran a big systems check. We had all the electronics being tested, auto pilot, plotter, AIS, radar, and the fridge on high. We were able to see exactly what the draw was going to be and how it was going to handle. I would say that unless you are in a power boat or have ample batteries stores, more than likely one would not be running quite so much. So we ended up using the radar and AIS in the thick fog leaving the gate. Shut it down and turned on the auto pilot while we had to motor sail away from the current of the gate for about an hour as we appeared to be going backwards and the city seemed to cry "come back."

After that we turned most of everything off and reverted to the hand held GPS and the wind vane auto pilot for the remainder of the trip until we were within 1/4 mile of the Harbor.

Back to the gen set:

For those who have not done this yet, or would like to remember this, if your boat is not grounded properly you will receive a reverse polarity signal from your panel if you plug it straight in. After scratching our heads for a bit, we realized that we are grounded for shore power and not for a gen set. Neil wired a ground into the chasis of the gen set and presto, no more reverse polarity and now we have power to every outlet and the batteries are being topped off.

We could have run them down a bit more but with 6 volt you must always try to keep a good balance of input/output as it takes much longer to recharge after a discharge.

If you use it hard for a day or so and it dips below 12.2 it will take about 2-3 days of decent charge to top her off to 13.5 again....if you don't make that much juice, you are looking at keeping it around 12.3 for almost a week and that is where we were at.

We have enough to keep the important things running well but not our fun stuff..and after all Neil is a big kid who loves to play video games with the kids, and we like to occasionally watch a movie together. We have set aside a large collection of videos that we have not seen so that when we pull into a port after a long stretch we can watch a movie over dinner...We also want this option available to night watchman.

Now we can recharge in no time. Most vessels have their engines as their alternate source of energy but we have made it so that no matter what, if the emergency were to arise, we have a dedicated system to the engine only...and we want to keep it that way.

So we will put up with a little noise from time to time in exchange for the comfort we have come to know. After all, this is our home, not a toy, not a vacation, but our water condo (it has also been reffered to as the "escape pod"), and we want it to be as comfy as can be; especially with kids (mom and Daisy)on board!