So we are trapped in Tomales, too much wind and waves for a comfortable trip to Pillar Point, our next stop. Meanwhile we run the boat. Like managing your own metropolis. Will there be enough water, electricity, how’s the sewage doing? A lot of it is out of your control. When you need the chart plotter, you need it, so the 2 amps are necessary. The sticky wicket comes with water. Water that we take for granted on shore, pour all over our veggies, water the garden, fill the hot tub or take a long shower. Off the grid there is an equation that relates water to our energy consumption.
If you get bored easily, now’s the time to check out ;-). Just be sure to enjoy the picture at the end.
Our solar panels can produce about 40 amps per hour (AH) in strong sunlight, The Solar panels can produce roughly 40 amps for 8 hours of strong daylight or 320 AH per day…as long as it’s sunny.
Keeping food cold takes about 8 amp hours for 24 hours or 192 AH per day.
So after refrigeration we are left with 128 AH from solar.
Our boat is blessed with the ability to make fifteen gallons of water per hour. It needs 15 amps for that hour (15 AH) to do that, or one AH per gallon. If we use 50 gallons per day we need 50 AH per day for water leaving 78 AH for everything else. Chart plotter is about 24AH per day radar another 15AH.
When you think about it, the item we have most control over is water. So how much water do you need to wash your hands, or a radish? Should you rinse the cutlery in one big wad, or fork at a time?
This is important because when we run out of AH from solar, we have to run the generator.
The generator produces up to 125 amps per hour, usually while it’s powering something else, like a hot water heater, and burns about ½ gallon per hour. If 40 percent of the diesel output is used to recharge the battery by putting more AH into the bank then each amp hour needed to make one gallon of water, takes about 1 teaspoon of diesel.
A gallon of water would not be usable with a teaspoon of smelly diesel floating on top. I wonder how my equation compares to the one we had on land. I never really thought about it. It was too easy to just turn on the faucet.
Out here we are going to work at not washing things with diesel.

OK, we are not trapped any more, publishing this on the way to Monterey when we should have another update.

Sunset Padddle

Cast off

It started last weekend with Kathy picking up Lisa’s Green VW beetle convertible “Margarita”. down to just one key. No house key only the key to the boat. Later that day I ask for the keys to run a short errand and oops, no Margarita.

I leave the key to the truck and the key to its shell in the glove box for my friend Doug who is taking over after 25 years of ownership. Only the boat key a beer opener and strangely a golf ball key card for Chuck Corrica Driving range are left. Monday morning we move out of our slip at Ballena Isle Marina and onto the fuel dock. 136 gallons and we are ready to go. Next tank will be in San Diego.

We motor in light air to Ayala cove on Angel Island and tie up to two mooring balls with minimum drama.  As willi waws from the building breeze in the slot blow over Mount Livermore, we sit in silence, completely zoned out. We are exhausted, It’s been a non stop four years selling two houses and a business, getting married, a year and a half of full time boat work.

After a life time of wanting this moment, I sit in silence on a worn park bench looking out over the cove at our boat floating on its mooring.  Will we be strong enough, smart enough, brave enough?

We are about to find out. One Day at a Time.

Mom and Dad, on Shearwater

I have been wanting to go cruising my whole life.  My dad spoke of building a ferrocement boat and sailing the south pacific.  His words, when I was 15, gave me a life long desire to make this journey.   At times, the possibility seemed dim with seasick partners, the struggles of a small business, the world seemed to conspire to make this already difficult goal impossible to obtain.

Years after the death of my first wife Sandy, I met Lisa who is open to the adventure and promise of this journey.   We slowly set about putting the plan in action.  We sold my wonderful Cape Dory “Shearwater” and began the search for an appropriate cruising vessel.  We spent 2 years visiting monohulls up and down the coast in California with our agent, and friend, Allison Lehman.  During one stop, we check out a multihull “Mantra”, a huge boat in less than pristine condition.  We offer,  but the deal falls through because the seller’s broker wanted both halves of the deal and pulls a buyer out of his back pocket.  We look at a beautiful Catana 472, but I am too tall to stand in front of the stove…I love to cook.

After that visit we spend two hours talking to the broker in the cockpit, (we call it the porch.)  We talk about cruising and multihull design.  As Lisa and I walk away we realize how comfortable the porch was. The elevated view of the surrounding marina, the protection afforded by the bimini overhead.  We realize a Catana is the way to go.

We visit Santosha in Ventura and offer.  Santosha is a 471 with the same great deck layout as a 472 but I can stand in front of the stove!  We offer, but the Seller seems to be conflicted.  He obstructs every step.  In the end, after a 3000 dollar survey, we abandon the deal.  In our view, the seller is completely unreasonable or perhaps just not ready to part ways with his boat.

After a “cooling off” period, we offer on a 471 in Seattle.  We get the deal in November 2013. The boat sits in the brokers slip while I sell my optometry practice.  Two weeks after the sale, I’m off to start working on the boat.  We finally found her, and later christened her Footloose!

Imagine-Hylas 48

Mantra Catana 582

Moon and Stars – Catan 472

Sam – Garcia 48

Santosha Catana 471

SeaYa – Hylsa 47

Starbuck – Custom Dencho

New Moon, now Footloose at her survey in Tacoma, WA