Topping Up

Since we left the Canary Islands, we have only spent a few nights in a harbor, and only once have we connected our electrical cable to the power supply at the harbor. This is possible due to the support systems that we installed before taking off. As there are only two of us on the boat for the most part, we have plenty of water and electricity onboard to take care of all our needs.

Some weeks it has rained, but we just become a bit more careful about how we use our electricity, and if it feels necessary we switch to cooking on propane for a day or so. We have a lot of redundancy in our systems – we can charge our Lithium batteries via a 415-watt solar panel, via a 300-watt hydrogenerator, or by running the engine. Magnus installed a higher capacity alternator (generator) on the engine which he actually has dialed back, not to put too much load on the motor.

The image on this post shows us receiving 300 watts of solar energy, and 146 watts of energy charging our batteries. The missing watts are being used by our watermaker, which is running and filling up our tanks with fresh water. Our fridge also takes a bit of energy, and there are some boat systems which take a bit of energy if they are left on.

Recently we had company onboard for a week, and it was great to see that Lulu kept up with our water and electricity needs for four people as well. If we would have been on a longer passage we would have put in the hydrogenerator, but since we were either only making day trips or staying at anchor, we were powered by the solar panels and the occasional motoring that we did along the way.

I try to do my laundry when it is sunny, because the washing machine takes a bit of batteries to run and also a significant amount of water. Often, we run the watermaker at the same time as the washer. After the washer has finished heating, a good sunny day will mean that we supply as much energy as we are using, and sometimes we even get to charge a bit above that. Plus, the sun and wind dry clothes even faster than a clothes dryer!

Many cruisers we meet have installed StarLink on their boats, and we are considering it, but it is a high energy user and my personal priority is laundry (!). We are waiting for a lower energy version, to make it a bit easier for use on the boat. Additionally, we only have a fridge – no freezer. If we had a freezer, it would also be a big draw on our power. We use an induction burner for all our cooking, although our oven is gas. Redundancy is important, as systems can fail on a boat and you want to be able to still eat, so we really appreciate having both electrical and gas options in the galley.

Magnus noticed that our fridge compressor was getting warm here in the Caribbean, so he installed an extra little fan – the kind that are used to cool down computers – in the floorspace next to the compressor, and it made a noticeable improvement in the energy usage of the fridge. Keeping the electrical equipment as cool as possible and also as dust-free as possible helps extend their useful life.

That’s today’s thought from Falmouth Harbour in Antigua, Monday 26 February 2024