Little Choptank Creek
Posted by Bryan on Sunday, September 22, 2013 Under: Anchored
We are anchored in the Little Choptank Creek, on the western side of the chesapeak. Nice sucluded spot. We have had some strong winds and are sitting tight till they pass. We had 30 knot - 35 knot winds last night with lots of rain. We put up the sides of the dodger and bimini and it was nice and dry. The boat is very comfortable, even in the high winds, rough waves and rain. Sink is working great, as it the stove, electric system, etc.... Everything is going well.
For our first night/day of staying on the boat, away from a dock for 24 hours, we celebrated with pizza and ice cream.
The pizza was fantastic with a nice crust and taste great. Dough was made form scratch by Tara and we proofed it in the engine room, which is just the right temp for proofing bread and making yogurt.
the freezer is staying between 12.5 and 14.5, with a cycle of going on only 1/3 of the time. All the extra insulation was worth it!!!!!! The fridge stays at a nice 40 degrees. It has a fan to pull cold air from the freezer when needed, but it rarely runs. It takes about 1 hour for the freezer to go up 1 degree F. So even if we turned off all electricity, the freezer could stay below freezing for 20 hours! With the compressor going on 1/3 of the time, at 5 amp draw, that is only 40 amp hours per 24 hours. Not a bad electrical consumption. Assuming the 85 W solar panel is working at full blast (never really is....and never for long), we are getting almost all of that back (sort of). I am not really sure how much the solar panel is doing. It is hard to measure. But it is theoretically possible, that it is giving us about 40 amp hours in perfect conditions, if I did my math right. (Grade 9 Canadian science right there!!!)
What I am trying to say, is that we can leave the boat for a few days and not have to run the engine to keep the battery charged.....and if it is sunny, we can last a few more days than that. Our battery bank is 660 amp hours (3 sets of 6 volt batteries, which are 220 amp hours each).
It did take almost 48 hours to get all the food from the grocery store down to the correct temp. That included some water jugs, raw meat that went in the freezer, and all the other food we could stuff in.
We have been cleaning up the boat, organizing lines,etc...
For our first night/day of staying on the boat, away from a dock for 24 hours, we celebrated with pizza and ice cream.
The pizza was fantastic with a nice crust and taste great. Dough was made form scratch by Tara and we proofed it in the engine room, which is just the right temp for proofing bread and making yogurt.
the freezer is staying between 12.5 and 14.5, with a cycle of going on only 1/3 of the time. All the extra insulation was worth it!!!!!! The fridge stays at a nice 40 degrees. It has a fan to pull cold air from the freezer when needed, but it rarely runs. It takes about 1 hour for the freezer to go up 1 degree F. So even if we turned off all electricity, the freezer could stay below freezing for 20 hours! With the compressor going on 1/3 of the time, at 5 amp draw, that is only 40 amp hours per 24 hours. Not a bad electrical consumption. Assuming the 85 W solar panel is working at full blast (never really is....and never for long), we are getting almost all of that back (sort of). I am not really sure how much the solar panel is doing. It is hard to measure. But it is theoretically possible, that it is giving us about 40 amp hours in perfect conditions, if I did my math right. (Grade 9 Canadian science right there!!!)
What I am trying to say, is that we can leave the boat for a few days and not have to run the engine to keep the battery charged.....and if it is sunny, we can last a few more days than that. Our battery bank is 660 amp hours (3 sets of 6 volt batteries, which are 220 amp hours each).
It did take almost 48 hours to get all the food from the grocery store down to the correct temp. That included some water jugs, raw meat that went in the freezer, and all the other food we could stuff in.
We have been cleaning up the boat, organizing lines,etc...
In : Anchored
