WORK AND STUFF

It's was a long July for me. Mostly because I have only been able to spend a few weekends on the boat. The rest of the time has been spent working a freelance job 250 miles away from the boat. I keep forgetting how much time work takes out of your day and how little time it leaves for living. I use to live to work and now I work to live. Though when working it affects ones leisure time and the creativity that looking at a full day with a blank slate usually inspires. Blog posts seem to get pushed aside for other more mundane activities that seem more pressing like a nap or making dinner.
On the plus side work helps one to refill the coffers and allow certain things on the wish list to be purchased. So I will be adding a few more things on board that I have been considering for my upcoming  cruises. Things like a new  Engel MR040 Portable AC/DC 12 Volt fridge-freezer (40qt) having it on board will now allow me to have both a freezer and refrigerator on board.  Which opens up more provisioning choices for  cruising. I've also splurged on a  Zojirushi Mini Breadmaker which I expect to use to make a variety baked goodies. At least that's the plan.  Another item I've bought is a Cellular Signal Booster which I hope will solve a frustrating communications problem in BIANKA's home port. How well it works is to be determined. Anyway as I wrap up my last day at work I'll be posting about these new additions to the boat  and how well they are working out as I finally get to get back on board and back into the cruising lifestyle.

DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO SOMETHING

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The winter has been terrible filled with snow and cold temperatures. So much so that I only got to visit the boat two times since December. While things were OK on the boat. It was still too cold to spend much time on board on projects and spring outfitting. It's too cold for any painting, varnishing, epoxy. Even holding metal tools for any length of time is not fun with temperatures in the mid 20's. Still I try to accomplish something in the short time I do spend on board. For example I noticed that the ENGEL MT25E refrigerator/freezer needs a little attention after ten years of reliable service:

Because of it's location near the hatch it has developed some rust on the compressor case:

My plan is to sand that off and touch it up with some paint. That is when things get warm enough to bring it outside to work on it. But, since it has been so reliable for the past decade I've never had to do any maintenance on the unit. So like the screws on my Honda 2000 generator some the screws on the ENGEL case may have  rusted in place:

So I figured the least I could do during my visit was to spray some   Corrosion Block penetrate onto the screws and letting it go to work:

I'm hoping it will make removing the screws in the future a much easier process once things warm up enough to spend more time on the boat. At least that's the plan. It's just a little thing to do but, gives me the feeling that at least something was accomplished during the winter visit.

LESSON LEARNED: WHAT DOES NOT WORK: ICE MAKER

As the sailing season ends here on the Isle of Long. It's time to look back at what worked and what did not. First up in the thumbs down column is this SPT ice maker:

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These counter top sized units are available under several brand names. I bought this last year thinking this would be good for a cruising sailboat like BIANKA that had a Honda 2000i generator that could provide the 120 volts to run it. Here is what originally sold me on the idea from the product info:

1) It could make up to 25 lbs of ice per day

2) It makes it's first ice in about 12 minutes after turning it on.

Sounds good but, the reality is much different. First of all I try to minimize use of the Honda generator as much as possible. It is mostly used for charging the 48 and 12 volt battery banks. Even though I can run this ice maker at the same time usually the amount of ice produced is not that great with my usual generator run times. On the second point yes it does produce it's first ice cubes in about ten minutes or less. They are not that thick at first and melt quite rapidly. It takes a number of cycles before the ice cubes are really "boat drink" useful. I don't like to run the generator that long if I don't need too. But, if you are usually tied to a dock with grid power it might be practical but, for a cruising sailboat like mine that spends most of it's time at anchor or a mooring it is not that useful. That's why it no longer is on board BIANKA. A much more practical and efficient way to make ice on board is using my ENGEL refrigerator/freezer which I describe here.  I'll be using the ENGEL from now on for ice making on board because it works for my cruising needs while the counter top ice maker does not. 

IS THIS A COOL WORLD OR WHAT!

I keep my options open

My possibilites pure

Is this a cool world or what!

Karla Devito

 As I continue on the Birthday/Best summer of my life cruise. I thought I'd share the ongoing experiment I've been conducting on board. I've already posted about the Captain Mike "What works" award given to to the Engel refrigerator /freezer thats aboard. For this cruise I decided to change it's operation from just using it as a refrigerator to converting it to freezer operation. I am using a Coleman 48 quart cooler as the refrigerator for the perishables. Below is a photo of them in the cabin:

So far it seems to be working rather well. Though the Engel does draw down the battery bank overnight a half hour run of the Honda in the morning and evening brings things back up quickly. My two solar 75 watt solar panels also keeps things topped up all day. Each morning and evening I take two of the one one liter water bottles from the freezer and put them into the cooler swapping them with the bottles already there. So far this seems to be working well in keeping things cool. When I started the cruise I also had frozen several quarts of milk at home and put them in the freezer as well and moved them one at a time into the cooler to defrost. This helps keep the cooler cool and allows for and extend supply of milk on board.

As you can see above there is still room for more storage in the freezer. You will also see several portions of my homemade Pasta Bolognese in the freezer ready to be defrost in the same way. Mmmmmm, I'm getting hungry. Cool world indeed!

WHAT WORKS! WHAT'S COOL!

Bianka had a Frigoboat 500 engine driven compressor refrigeration system when I bought her. It worked well for a few years. Then one day it died. I found out it used R12 refrigerant gas. This was bad news because the the stuff was no longer made. The reason for that is it was bad for the environment. Remember the Ozone hole?  The idea of repairing it became moot when I converted the boat to electric propulsion.   So back in the diesel days while I was debating about what to do about the Frigoboat system I came across an Engel MT25 E refrigerator/freezer.

It's a 22 liter refridgerator/freezer  that runs on 12 volts DC or 120 volts. It has actually been able to provide my needs for over 8 years now without a problem. With one 75 watt solar panel on board this little baby operated 24/7 during the whole season and never once drained the battery bank. If I'm going on an extended cruise I'll fill the on board ice box with ice and keep access to it to a minimum. Meanwhile I keep the things I'll be using most frequently in the Engel. Things like milk, cheeses, juices etc... Rather waste a lot of energy keeping a case of beer cold. I just pop a few bottles in the Engel as needed. It looks like the MT25 E has been superseded by the Engel MT-27 model. Very similar to my unit but, a little more efficient and has handles. Engel also makes other sizes both bigger and smaller depending on your space and needs. I found the MT-25 now ENGEL MT-27 a perfect secure fit next to the cockpit hatch where I do most of my dining and drinking (weather permitting). As you can see here:

This keeps the beers, beverages, bottles of wine etc... close to the cockpit and keeps the built-in on board icebox closed for most of the day. Throw a boat cushion on the top of the unit:

and you have an additional  very convenient seat that you can move around in the cabin. This Engel unit has worked flawlessly on board BIANKA for over eight years and that's why I give it my WHAT WORKS award.

BLOG UPDATE: I recently purchased a second ENGEL unit. An Engel MR04UF which has more room and functions better as an on board  refrigeration system.

GOING ELECTRIC: Part 4: Still they'll be more

There is a Procol Harum song that ominously tells of all the bad things that can happen and the chorus is "still they'll be more".


Well that is kind of what happens when one starts the electrification process on a boat. Most of us don't spend a lot of time underneath the cockpit in and around the engine if we don't have to. But, at the beginning of the conversion to electric propulsion you will. As you look around you keep finding more and more things that you can or need to remove off the boat.

The photo above shows additional parts of the Frigoboat 500 marine refrigeration system that I removed. The red item is the water condenser for the refrigeration system. This was connected to some of the items removed that were shown in Going Electric:Part 3. I still don't know what the purpose of the grey canister almost hidden underneath the red condenser is for but, it's going out too. You can see the white hoses which actually cover copper tubing that contained the refrigerant. These go off to the right to another canister that will also be removed. Then there is the sight glass in the lower right which was used to monitor the flow of the refrigerant. Lot's of hoses, wiring, connections and complexity. Finally there is the coolant container that held extra antifreeze for the diesel engine that was attached to the exhaust manifold that will be gone too. Looking around in other areas what do you find:

MORE HOSES! In this case they are the fuel lines that once provided fuel to the now removed diesel engine. You could leave them if you make sure they no longer contain any fuel. But, why carry extra weight that is no longer needed.

As you can see the Coast Guard and Marine insurance companies are very picky (for good reasons) on making sure boat fuel lines are securely installed. Once the electric system is installed you will no longer have as easy access to this area as you do now. So you might as well remove the obsolete fuel lines and other items while you can get at them easily.

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