Wanabe Cruiser

We anchored the other day and settled down in the cockpit to relax and take it easy.  As we were looking out onto the anchorage we noticed something swimming towards the boat.  Being brave souls we took a couple steps down the rear steps to identify what was in the water.  It didn't take long for both of us to be back up the steps because we recognized it was a snake swimming towards us.  

Bugs, Bugs, and more Bugs

Anchoring out has not been an issue with bugs but as we were leaving our last anchorage and heading to New Bern that drastically changed.  We have had some may flies but nothing that made you want to stay in the boat.  When we woke the morning to leave there was a noticeable amount of small flying insects on the boat.  So we worked around them and raised anchor for our short motor trip to New Bern.  

Not sure when the bugs really became noticeable but they seemed to multiply every minute.  Kris took the pleasure of watching from inside the boat and letting me know there were a lot of bugs out there.  At least the bugs did not bite and wanted to stay landed and left me alone for the most part.  When we pulled into the marina the boat went for a major shower and the bugs either flew away or were washed away.  At the marina we haven't had any issues but in a few days we will have to travel back along the bug route.  Hopefully this time they avoid the boat.

No the speaker is all white, or should be

Yes it should be all white.

A little research at the Marina, while we have internet led us to the conclusion that these irritating little visitors are midges.   They hatch under water, swim to surface and then mate in large swarms.  This can go on for several weeks.   

They are attracted to light, so we will try to anchor where there is more appealing light than our boat for them to go to, and try to keep our night light to a minimum, which is hard to do, since we do not have shades.  I guess we can go to bed early, or suffer the consequences in the morning.   

On the road again, see us live on a webcam

Morehead Yacht Basin

Well it isn't much but today, 4/13, we left Morehead Yacht Basin Marina, Charm's home for the last 5 months.  The marina was a great spot to stay at, people friendly, marine services within walking distance, and food a mid walk away.  It may have not been the best day to leave, winds of 15 to 20 out of the north, so leaving the dock was right into the wind.  We did stop and fill up with diesel as well so getting away from the dock twice was a challenge but captain Kris handled it well.

We only moved 1 hour away but are now anchored and listening to new noises, feeling the boat move around and seeing different scenery is good.  Will head up to New Bern NC by the end of the week to get some packages, a new carburetor for the outboard engine is high on the list.

Home sweet home at Morehead

Looks odd with Charm gone

At the fuel dock getting ready to leave

4/20 update:

We anchored out for a week and now have taken a slip at New Bern Grand Marina.  We have some packages being sent and needed a spot for them to go to.  You can check us out on their webcam, camera #7 at the far right side.  There is blue hull sailboat between us and the camera but you can see the green sail covers and the back arch.

https://www.newberngrandmarinayachtclub.com/index.php/marina-cam/camera7

AIS tracking

AIS, Automatic Identification System, is an automatic tracking system that uses transceivers on ships that is unique to each vessel.  AIS will give the name of the vessel, speed, and direction to other vessels to avoid collisions.  Commercial vessels are required to have it and more and more private vessels are adding it to their ship.

We have added it to ours and while we are near shore the shore based antennas will broadcast the info to other land based units.  At sea the unit will broadcast to other vessels in the 10 mile area.  If you want to take a look at ours you can go to:  https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-76.705/centery:34.722/zoom:18

Short update:  we have a small issue with our router.  All the info is shared thru our boat wifi system but the NETGEAR router doesn't seem to like our ship data and shops sharing it.  So onto a new router and yes AMAZON will deliver it prior to us leaving the dock.

bad router

Update:

New router arrived.  very easy to hook up and use.  Bought a TP Link brand, and so far it works very well.  

Anyone need a slightly used very irritating NetGear?

TRAMPOLINE

Ultraviolet rays is hard on plastic, lines, and gel coat of boats.  We have gotten replacement lines and just replaced the trampoline. The manufacturer of the original tramp is still in business, Sunrise Yacht Products, so all we had to do was pick a color and they made it to the same size.  The old ones were unlaced and the new ones laced in place.  The old ones squeaked when you walked on them, the ropes were salt incrusted, and the new ones are quiet.

Kris lacing the new starboard tramp

2 new tramps all laced in

Dodger #2

When we bought the boat it did not have any dodger to protect the cockpit and people on the helm.  Lee and Dean found that out the hard way when they moved the boat from Maryland to Virginia and it became stormy and rainy.  They happened to get very wet and cold.

So one of the projects before the boat moved from Virginia to North Carolina Dean made a couple of temporary dodgers.  One was out of plexiglass that covered half and the other was out of see through shower curtain material.  Both had issues but made the trip much more enjoyable during the rain and wind.

Dodger 1, note tape between sides

Long term we need to make a real dodger but again time becomes short and we needed to improve upon the previous version.  Enter dodger #2  which is 30 mil clear plastic sewn to a plastic rope that fits into the track around the hard top.  Kris sewed the two together and today we went out and installed.  The dodger being full plastic makes it hard to bend and work with, that is why the real ones use Sunbrella for the majority of the dodger and just use the clear plastic for windows. 

This one is not perfect but will probably last the summer, fall, and who knows how long.

Kris hard at work, still cold

No dodger

Nice clear dodger

No dodger

Nice clear dodger

The Lithium Battery Changeover

On the boat you live by how much power you can make and how much you use.  To make power you have wind generators, solar panels, and generators being the main options.  The biggest draws of power are refrigeration, computers, and fans. If you have enough power then you add toasters, bread makers, hair dryers, hot water heaters, and other normally 110 volt household appliances that are luxuries on boats.    In between the power users and the power makers are your batteries. Having a large battery bank for storage of power helps tie you between how often you make power and power use.

Our battery bank was made of lead acid batteries that had an amp hour of 660 but you only want to use 50% of that so in reality it was only 330 amp hours of use available.   If we didn't generate any power we would use up 330 amp hours in 2, maybe 3 days.    We knew we needed to generate more power so we changed our solar panels and that doubled the generation of 6 panels of 80 watts each to 6 panels of 175 watts.  That would bring in about 300 amp hours a day.  Then we made the decision to replace our batteries to the lithium iron phosphate type which took our house battery bank from 660 to 1680 amp hours of storage.  The nice thing about lithium is you can use about 80% of it so in reality we have 1300 amp hours vs the old 330.

In the end we should have enough power to even make 

Captain Kirk or in the case Captain Kris, happy.

We had ordered the new batteries from China and then had to install the BMS, Battery Management System, on them.

boxes from China

2 cells per box

all unpacked and looking good

with the BMS installed

the new batteries all installed

Staying clean

Our boat has a Splendide washer/dryer built into the starboard vee berth.  It is not a large machine, it handles about 2 cubic feet of wash.  So doing a sheet, pillow case and a couple of tee shirts can be washed and dried.  That is when you are at dock and have 30amp 110 power it will work.  We are working on being able to use it off our new battery bank with just washing and then will dry outside on the life lines.

At least that was the plan until the unit stopped the other day.  We were working on our new invertor and probably had something to do with it stopping.  Worked through the options and it looks like it was just a surge protector that did it's job.  That sounds like a simple project but getting the unit out of its spot, turning it 180s, all in the vee berth made it more than just simple.  In the end we ordered the part and should be able to get it back together within a week.

"normal look"