Date: Wednesday
July 18, 2012
Location: Point
Arena to Point Reyes, 5-10 miles offshore. Closing in on San Francisco.
Random Thoughts:
Really nice to have a calm day even if it means motoring. I feel more rested
and am really looking forward to arriving in San Francisco. I hope we can arrive in style under sail but
who knows after 2 days of motoring.
Weather/Conditions/Sailing:
Today was calm and flat. Tried to sail at one point but we could only make 2-3
knots to we continued to motor. Mixed
clouds with fog limiting visibility to ½ mile at times.
Sea Life: No
whale spottings today. Noted some small sea birds of mixed white and gray fluttering
on and off the water. I wonder what they eat out here. They seem more
appropriate to land.
Food: Breakfast
was cold cereal and lunch was our usual cold cut sandwiches. We usually make 2
each, eat one now and save the other for later. However, with the flat ride we
were able to have a nice dinner of baked potatoes with sour cream and pan fried
marinated flank steak (yeah Costco) …Yummy!!
Recreation: Still
no joy fishing. The 2 trolling lines got hopelessly tangled together. We tried
for 30 minutes to untwist them but ended up cutting them off and starting from
scratch. We had what seemed like 2 bites but then there was nothing on the
line.
We watched our first DVD tonight (“Master and Commander”)
which seemed appropriate in the fog. TR was able to keep watch outside while
watching the inside screen and listening
to the movie through the outside stereo speakers. I was surprised that we had
not watched more movies but with running the boat and trying to sleep, there
hasn’t been time.
Boat repairs/maintenance/improvements: Burned ½ quart of oil in the engine. The
automatic bilge pump is coming on every 25 minutes which could be an issue.
Tried to purge air from the air and hot water system to help circulation but it
still only barely heats the hot water.
Boat Systems:
(covered galley and head) Lets pick a simple one today. How about electricity?
Mariah, like most boats, has 2 banks of batteries. There is one engine battery
and a set of 5 house batteries (for everything not engine related). The house batteries are 75 amp hours each x5
equals 375 amp hours total. You can only access 50% of this power so that
leaves almost 200 amp hours available. So in real terms, if your fridge draws 5
amps, it can run 200amp hours/5 amps= 40 hours on a charge. I think my
batteries are tired since they don’t last nearly this long. On board Mariah,
electricity is generated by the engine alternator (80 amp) when motoring and
solar panels (two 145 amp panels)and a wind generator (KISS model) when not
motoring. The solar panel do well, obviously, when the sun is out but are
useless at night. The KISS wind generator is high out put so needs at least 15
knots of wind to work. The main electricity onboard is 12 volts (like in your
car) but I have a small 400 amp inverter for 110 volt to power the TV and other
small 12 volt items (even a small blender). When plugged into shore power, it
can power a battery charger, the hot water heater, the fridge and I have a
small portable electric heater.
Cheers, Ken
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