Another NUMBERS postWe are gearing up to leave Mexico for the South Pacific and before we leave I wanted to go back over our logbook numbers for the Canada-USA-Mexico portion of the trip (at least so far).
I'm not sure how many miles we've sailed because our knot meter often doesn't work -- critters like to grow in the paddle wheel. Anyone who has sailed the same path have an estimate?
We have visited 27 towns/anchorages. We spent 106 nights at anchor averaging 4.4 nights per anchorage. This average is inflated by the 35 days we were at anchor in San Francisco and when you remove SF this average drops to 3.1 nights per anchorage.
We have spent almost 3 months in marinas (!) with a combination of free yacht club nights in California, S Pacific prep and family visits in La Paz and leaving the boat in a marina for a month so we could travel for kiteboarding.
Since leaving Tofino in late July we have used:
- 120 engine hours – go sailboat!
- 65 gallons of diesel (engine + diesel heater)
- 4 gallons of gasoline
Gear "failure" has included:
- 1 diesel engine mixing elbow
- 1 o-ring on the watermaker filter (did not fail - we accidentally dumped it overboard - thank you Bella Star for the spare!)
- 1 torn cosmetic rubber ring around our brand new Lavac bilge pump (pump works perfectly so we haven't done anything about this)
- 1 cracking/worn bilge pump hose we replaced
- 1 solar panel quick release plug (our fault, we let it sit in some water)
- 1 BBQ burner which became corroded after 5 years of use
(reminder – you can usually put your mouse over photos we post for descriptions)
Hi Livia, Carol - these are great data (really !) … is it correct to say that the Canada-USA-Mexico leg has lasted 7 months (Aug´11 until now)?
ReplyDeleteThe amount of time spent in Marinas, in particular, looked very interesting. From my "extensive armchair sailing experience (…)", I would have expected the ratio between Anchor and Marina nights to be roughly 4:1. Btw, speaking of Ratios, I have adopted your fun:suck Ratio concept, and it is quite flexible and effective ! Have good winds, Alex
Hi Alex - It *is* high - in general and for us. We had about a month of free moorage in CA from yacht clubs and then one month of leaving the boat at a marina while we camped. You can bet that we won't have the same ratio in the S Pacific, although we may end up leaving the boat on the hard for part of the hurricane season...we'll see.
ReplyDeleteHi Livia & Carol,
ReplyDeleteA couple of questions:
- Which solar panels did you end up with, and how have they been for you?
- Have you used your watermaker much/constantly? Is it "big" enough? (Which one did you get?)
We are still planning to head south in August/September. Getting Pelagia ready.
Still a regular follower -- not panicking when posts are delay ;)
Cheers, David
We have these: http://thegiddyupplan.blogspot.com/2010/10/solar-panel-install.html
ReplyDeleteThat was the most solar we could fit on the bimini. We figure that at anchor, with normal usage we can go about 5 days without another source (the Honda generator or motoring off the anchor). More would always be better if we could fit them.
We have the Powersurvivor 40. We didn't want a huge watermaker. We wanted a "supplemental watermaker" that could be our "only source" if we needed it to. We still take water when available as it saves amps. We could have a bigger watermaker - but where would the bigger amps come from? I plan to review our watermaker usage at some point later. Basically, we can use ours without starting the generator or engine. We would love a bigger watermaker, but not love the power needs...and thus the diesel needs...and thus the engine hours and maintenance.
Looking forward to your departure. We may get multiple seasons in the S Pacific - maybe we'll see you?
We may see you, but we so far seem to miss you (only by a few weeks in Haida Gwaii, etc) -- but who knows. Just getting south to Mexico seems a big goal right now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for info re watermaker -- we can't make up our mind yes/no, and if yes, big (w/Honda Gen) or small (12 V). Maybe we'll decide in California???
In case you were wondering, raining hard in Vancouver right now. Snowing up on Whistler, but we are kinda "laid up" (on the hard?) right now after our respective injuries.
Cheers,
David