General – Page 4 – Sailing Pearl: Travels on a Beneteau Oceanis 373

Getting Weather while under way

Lisa and I have still not been able to leave Key West. We’ve had an endless series of problems with the boat that have prevented us from crossing over to the Bahamas. On the positive side, it’s allowed us to fix the issues in an place that we know well, have very helpful friends, and can get the stuff we need.

Meanwhile, the delays have also given me time to figure out how to do stuff like get the sort of weather reports we would like when we want to make crossings, etc., without access to a broadband internet connection.

For those of you who don’t remember the days of dial-up internet service, that is pretty much what we have using a Pactor Modem and HF Radio (generously supplied by JCP). Anyway, accessing web pages isn’t an option. We are limited to email, and essentially the amount of data you can fit in an SMS (no pictures!).

Given that limitation, there are a couple of handy sources I’ve come up for getting the weather information I would like help us find weather windows to allow safe travels. Both of these sources are email responders that allow one get specific weather information using pre-formatted email messages. This is very exciting!

The first service is from NOAA, the National Weather Service. You can get information from them from the following URL http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/ftpmail.txt or by sending the following mail message:

Send e-mail to:      ftpmail@ftpmail.nws.noaa.gov
Subject Line:        Put anything you like
Body:                help
These instructions are subject to revision....download frequently.

More interestingly, a similar service is available from www.bouyweather.com, with information that’s easier to consume. One of the key features of buoyweather.com is the ability to set up “virtual buoys” from which to receive weather information. What I have done is predefine a bunch of virtual buoys at strategic locations along the routes that we plan to follow and we can get the forecast we need at will.

All you really need to do to get a 7 day forecast is to send a preformatted message to the buoyweather requesting information for a particular lat/lon and “voila!” you get a 7 day forecast with wave heights and directions, and wind speeds and directions. Following is an excerpt of what you get back.

 BUOYWEATHER.COM Virtual Buoy Forecast
 Location : 24.5N  81.75W              
 Model Cycle: 2014 APR 19 12Z          
 UTC - 4 Hours                         
-------------------------------------------------
           WIND                 SEAS
DATE   HR  dir/deg  range(kt)   dir/per range(ft)
----  ---  ----------------   -------------------
4/19  08   W   270   9 - 12   ESE  5sec   2 -  3
4/19  14   WNW 305   8 - 11   WSW  3sec   1 -  3
4/19  20   WNW 302  12 - 1    W    3sec   1 -  3

4/20  02   WNW 307   9 - 13   WNW  5sec   1 -  2
4/20  08   WNW 304  10 - 14   WNW  6sec   1 -  2
4/20  14    NW 318   8 - 11   WNW  6sec   1 -  2
4/20  20   NNW 336   7 - 10   WNW  7sec   1 -  2

I think this is slick, and it’s super useful for the way we go about setting up our routes for the Bahamas and Caribbean. Check out http://www.buoyweather.com/buoyweather/userguide.html for details.

Buoyweather also offers similar service for long passages which will give you the weather 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours out along your projected route. We don’t need this yet as we will be making much shorter hops, but it’s useful to know.

I know this is all seems pretty sailing/weather geeky, but we hope this helps any of you who read this and are planning to make voyages of any sort.

If you have weather other sources that you use over an SSB or HAM radio, or that you recommend, we’d love to hear about them.

Choosing a new Dinghy for Pearl

Sadly, we had to retire Ziply Banana Rocket, the AMI XL 300 we purchased in Portland last year. While she was new out of the box, she’d been made in 2009, which when she was relocated to the “tropics” caused some one of her tubes to leak.

As a result we decided to donate her to the Key West Community Sailing Center (a sailing co-op with the skills and resources to fix her). They plan to use her as a chase boat for the youth sailing program. “Come here little duckies!” We were very sad to see her go. The question was with what we were going to replace her.

The matrix of choices when it comes to buying a dinghy are pretty impressive.

PVC or Hypalon
Rigid hull Inflatable Boat or Rollup (hard or slatted floor)
Air floor or Hard Floor
Aluminium or Fibre glass hull RIB
Single or double hull

The choice between PVC and Hypalon seems pretty easy. If you’re in the tropics, choose Hypalon. The issue according to a repair shop that I spoke with is that the glue used on PVC degrades in temps around 80 degrees causing the seems to fail and the tubes to leak over time. Apparently the glue used in the construction of Hypalon boats doesn’t suffer the same problem — hence the choice for us.

The choice between RIB or Roll-up has has to do with space. It’s arguable that RIBs are heavier than Roll-ups, however the roll-up we had was heavier than the RIB we have now.

Ribs are great. The are drier, plane faster, and are more robust from the perspective of driving them up on a beach. The downside is that you either need to be willing to tow it, store it on deck, or lift it on davits.

A roll-up, on the other hand will “roll up,” you can put it in a dinghy stuff sack, and turn it into a nice little package that can even be lashed on the fore deck or even stored in a locker. The down side is that they are wetter, less comfortable on long rides, and potentially less durable.

There are a couple of three choices for Roll-Up dinks, soft/air floor, slatted floor, or hard floor. We didn’t spend much time on these options because we wanted a hard floored RIB as a result of Harley. What I have heard, however, is that the high pressure floors with an inflatable keel work quite well to get you on a plane, etc. Based on personal experience, the slatted floors are not great for anything but very minimal use. The hard decks are quite nice, our previous dinghy had them and they worked very well. The only downside is that you have to find the space to store the floorboards.

If you choose a RIB, you have to decide between an Aluminium or Fiberglass hull. Aluminium is more durable than fiber glass, it is more resistant to dings than the gelcoat on the fiberglass hulls but more challenging to repair. They are also lighter! We wanted an aluminum hull but finally opted for fiberglass due to the cost ($5000 instead of $4000) and availability.

Note that there is a very affordably priced aluminum hulled Highfield RIB. We opted not to go with this as the buyer for a major online retailer who’d evaluated the dinks refused to carry them as he thought that the hull-tube bond would fail as the hull was powder coated before the tubes were glued on. I would encourage you to do your own research on this one. AB, however, has a couple of very nice but expensive aluminium hulled RIB models.

After all of that, we came up with the following criteria:

Must be made of Hypalon: it last better than PVC in the tropics
Must be light as it will be carried on davits
Must be rated for a 20 hp engine: what we have–> Must be FAST! (Lisa)

After looking at several dinghies, we ended up with the following short list:

– Caribe 10X @ ~ $3500.00
– Achilles HB315DX @ $4000.00
– Zodiac Cadet 310 RIB @ $3000.00
– AB VL10 @ $4000.00
– Highfield UL 310/340 @ $3000.00

The general consensus among the cruisers and sales people we spoke with was get either a Caribe, Avon, or AB. Our initial preference was to get the Caribe 10X which is double hulled, has a bow, locker, etc. When we looked at a Westmarine 340 which had a bow locker, the locker seemed pretty pointless, and it seemed like we be better off and save the weight by getting a “single hull. Also, the “single hull” on the AB isn’t really accurate as the VL has a flat floor.

While we did not personally inspect and test all five choices, what we did find out was that it’s really hard to get Caribes any more as they come out of Venezuela. We also found out that dinghy sales people were remarkably disinterested in selling product in this price range. The notable exceptions were Adam and Mike at the Inflatable Boat Center in Portland, OR and Jeff at Lifeline Inflatables in Miami from which we purchased our dink.

What we finally purchased and extremely happy with is an AB VL 10. It has the right combination of features for us and most importantly, seems to be very well put together. Stay tuned for pics and video of our new dink!

What you have above are a lot of my opinions and I’ve made a number of generalizations that you should take for what they are worth. On the off chance you are buying a dinghy, I hope they will give you some food for thought. If you have navigated this process yourself, I would love to hear you thoughts and opinions.

Our 9 Best Upgrades to Pearl for Cruising

We are finally done with boat projects and upgrades to Pearl to make our cruising life more comfortable. After all the theorizing, what we actually have done follows:

1. Dinghy Davits

Lisa and I decided that davits were a “must have.” There are several reasons for this:

(a) Improved boat performance: you don’t end up dragging the dink, allowing the boat to move a knot or so faster.

(b) Safety: you have an easily deployed life raft if necessary. Yes, we have a seperate life raft, but ….

(c) Security: dinghies are better stored “on board” than in the water; needing to climb aboard a boat to cut a dinghy free tends to deter prospective thieves.

The davits we finally settled on are from Garhauer Marine. They are very well made, and I highly recommend them.

2. A Hypalon Dinghy

Sadly, Ziply Banana Rocket, the Yellow AMI XL 300 PVC dinghy we purchased last year started to fail. This was due to the glue that holds the boat together being eroded by the heat and UV in Florida. Given that a dinghy is a critical piece if equipment when cruising, we opted to purchase an AB RIB (Rigid hull Inflatable Boat).

The big deal with hypalon vs. PVC fabric in the tropics isn’t about the fabric itself. It has to do with the glue that holds the fabric together. According to a inflatable boat wright (?) I chatted with, PVC glue start to fail at about 80 F. Since one is consistently above that temp in the tropics, PVC boats tend to fail sooner rather than later as we saw with the AMI.

3. Upgraded Navionics

Given that the Raymarine Pathfinder Radar had started to glitch and that charts for the chart plotter were pretty expensive, we decided to upgrade all of the navigation electronics and radar, and add in AIS display capability. Oddly enough this was less expensive than buying the electronic chart kits for where we wanted to go cruising. The net result is improved visibility of surrounding traffic as well as less expensive charts!

4. Foredeck Shade

Given that we haven’t added a high capacity generator to Pearl, we figured we’d go with a low tech solution: a deck shade that keeps the sun off the fore deck. Surprisingly, the shade noticably drops the temp in the V berth. Also, the shade is well enough constructed and laced on that we leave it up during storms — for which it can also serve as a rain catcher if required. The shade was definitely worth the $ 380 it cost to get made.

5. Filters on the fuel systems

We’ve added a Racor 500 filter on Pearl. This replaced the Racor 230 (?) that came standard. Additionally we’ve opted to add a couple of fuel shutoff vales to this to facilitate filter replacement rather than running a dual filter system. While I gather you can use vise grips on the fuel lines when changing filters instead of having shut off valves, that seemed a bit dodgy to me.

We’ve also added a Racor 120 gasoline filter for the outboard that will hopefully minimize problems there.

6. “Eye Lids” for the Portlights

Keeping the port light open when it rained was a bit of an issue. It made the boat stuffy and uninhabitable. We’ve added “eyelids” for the port lights which mostly keep the rain out of the boat. These cost appromimately $50 each from Portshade.com and were super easy to install. This was another worthwhile investment as it keeps the boat ventilated.

7. Marine VHF with AIS / Digital Selective Calling

We upgraded the original I-Com to a Standard Horizon Matrix AIS+. There are a couple of cool features to this change. The first is that it has Digital Selective Calling, which enables you to call a specific vessel based on their MMSI number (which most commercial vessels advertise via AIS). The second is that it integrates with the Raymarine e7D and a67 chart plotter/MFDs to provide enable AIS displays on the chart plotter. So, now we can identify the vessel we need to call and reach them directly.

It would be slick to be able to be able to tap the AIS icon on the chart plotter to have a call placed, but that seems way over the top at the moment.

7. Upgraded Bilge Pumps

Pearl came equiped with an approximately 200 gph bilge pump. I hadn’t really thought about what that really meant until I sat down and figured out how much water we’d take on if one of the sea cocks or through hulls failed. That calculation resulted us adding a 2000 gph bilge pump that is plumbed into the boat as well as a 4000 gph portable bilge pump. A couple of things to note are that what bilge pumps are rated for and how much they actually put out depend on the input battery voltage, how far the water’s being lifted, and I believe, how many plastic buckets one has.

8. Flooded to AGM Batteries

Pearl originally had 200 Ah house battery bank, We’ve upped this to 520 Ah, and changed from flooded batteries to maintenance free AGMs. We figured that AGMs are better for a a few reasons: the first is that they don’t require maintenace, the second is that they are more resistant to being bounced around. The third is that they can be drawn down without damaging the cells.

9. Electric Pump on the Head

Ok. The head in this case is the toilet. We decided to replace the Jabsco hand pump with en electric macerator pump to clear the toilet bowl as we seemed to have interminable problems with the joker valves on the manual pump. This is a nasty mess on which you don’t need the details. The short version is that we a quite happy with the result.

There are several other little tweaks we’ve made — e.g. adding a plexiglass splash guard to the galley sink, a clothes line in the head, etc. The upgrades listed above are our best guess at our most important improvements for cruising.

We’d love to hear from you if you have suggestions based on you experiences!

Update: Not crossing the Gulf Stream on Thursday

After chatting with a bunch of people who’ve crossed to the Bahamas several times, Lisa and I have decided to hold off on heading out on Thursday. While there seems to be a weather window this week, conventional wisdom suggest that we find a 3 day window when we can leave Key West.

While we theoretically could leave earlier and safely make our crossing, we are waiting on dinghy davits that we ordered. The davits are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday. It should take a day or so to install them. We really want the davits as they will allow us to get the dinghy out of the water. Towing a dinghy across the Gulf Stream just does not sound like fun.

Since Lisa and I are looking forward to a boring an dun eventful crossing, we are holding off on our departure and working on our interminable list boat projects.

If you’d like to check out one of the weather sites we are using to determine when we go, check out http://passageweather.com and go to West Indies / South Florida.

Upgrading Pearl for Extended Travel

So having hung around the marinas for a while, lived on the boat, and generally tried to adapt to cruising life, I’ve come up with a list of stuff with which to upgrade Pearl. There is a magic balance here. On the one hand I don’t want so much gear on board that I can’t swing a cat. On the other, there are things — like water — that can be a serious pain in the posterior to acquire when traveling abroad.

My design goal here is to be able to project Pearl an unspecified distance for an undetermined period — single handed. Note that short of building a “generation” spaceship replete with an farm on board, this is not very realistic. It does, however, pose interesting questions regarding energy consumption/production, water (!!!), and crew workload/rest.

It’s useful to note that people have traveled in sailboats for a long time without any of the stuff that I am considering adding, and that there are fail-safe behavioral rather than technological solutions to all of the problems I am trying to solve.

To this end, there are three projects upgrades to Pearl that I think would be useful, which I will discuss individually as they evolve.

Project #1: Power Generation
Pearl currently has only two energy sources on board — her sails which are used for propulsion, and the her diesel engine which is an auxiliary propulsion system as well as the source for generating electrical power that is stored in batteries. There isn’t an issue with the propulsion systems. The big question has to do with electrical power for all of the conveniences that are “must haves” on board.

There are three options for supplementary electrical power — a gas or diesel generator, a wind generator, and solar panels. There are two parts to this equation: demand and supply. The magic I am trying to figure out at the moment is how to increase the renewable power supply from solar and/or wind, cut demand, keep up with the power requirements for snazzy electronic gear while under sail, and find a place to park the batteries required for power storage.

Project #2: Water Maker
This is a really sore topic that I am in the process of researching. On the one hand, the dock-side scuttlebutt is that you can’t live without a water maker, particularly if you don’t have giant water tanks 200 – 400 gallons, and particularly in the Bahamas. Pearl carries “only” 100 gallons of water. While I figured I could use 3 – 5 gals of fresh water per person per day. This still makes for water stops every 10 days to 2 weeks. There is also the option of supplemental water (e.g. bottled) for drinking, jerry cans, and a rain catcher (?!?). Stay tuned on the story behind this one.

Project #3: Navionics
Pearl currently has a great chartplotter, autopilot, depth sounder/sonar, radar, and radios (VHF and HAM/SSB). The dodgy bit is that the chart plotter is old, the Jeppesen charts for it are egregiously expensive (more expensive than the cost of new gear for the east cost alone), and the radar is essentially dead. The current generation of that gear is pretty slick and offers a bunch of interesting safety enhancements like integrated AIS (think transponders for ships) and MARPA based radar guard zones that allow you of potential collisions and threats. Oh, and all of this can be displayed on an iPhone or iPad, as a bonus.

Stay tuned. More to come.

Harley’s Bar Hopping Adventure

Yesterday (Labor Day), Lisa and I took Zipply-the-yellow-dinghy out exploring into the flats with Harley. Our original plan was to head out to Snipes Keys a secret local’s hang out a little ways out of Key West that you can only get to by boat.

Harley, however, had other plans for us. When we got to the sand bars en route to snipes, Harley took one look at the gin-clear water and started whining and bouncing on the bow of the dinghy trying to jump in. I have to admit Lisa and I were pretty keen on getting in as well. It was a PERFECT day to play in the water — sunny and hot.

A fun day lounging on a sand bad was all we got. Our plans for fishing, snorkeling, and lobstering had to wait for another day.

Video: Harley Climbs a swim ladder

One of my biggest concerns with having Harley on board when out sailing is that he will hop off the boat while at anchor and not be able to get back on — without help from either Lisa or myself. I figure if a cat can be trained to poop in a toilet, Harley can be taught to climb a swim ladder.

So when Lisa and I were in Andersonl, South Carolina, about a month or so ago, we visited a her family friends on Lake Hartwell. This proved to be the perfect opportunity to try teaching Harley how to climb out of the water using a swim ladder. If you noticed the video of the sharks at sunset marina, you’d understand why I’ve been reluctant to try this experiment of the boat at the dock.

For those of you who are interested, here’s video of Harley’s first attempt at climbing a swim ladder.

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Backing Your Sea Cocks / Through Hull Fittings

Okay. If you got past the title on this one, you’d probably thing “sounds kinky, and not likely to be fun.” For those of you who are wondering what a “sea cock” or “through hull” is, it’s a tap/pipe fitting that covers up a hole in a boat allowing water (typically) to be taken in or dumped out. For example, there is a sea cock / through hull to pull water into the engine to cool it. There is also one for the sink to drain out. These are arguably necessary holes in one’s boat.

The problem here is that a sea cock is a hole in the boat. If the fitting fails, there is a distinct possibility that the boat will SINK — an unnerving thought at the best of times. I’ve been paying attention to Pearl’s through hulls after recently figuring out that her bilge pumps will not keep her afloat if one fails. I’ve had to replace one sea cock already as a result of a cracked nut, so I think that I should replace the rest with more robust models that and install backing plates to make them more secure.

Here’s a picture of the some of Pearl’s sea cocks without backing under the sink in the head ( a.k.a. toilet) along with the infamous shower pump.

There’s a pretty good article of how to install backing on though hulls at Jamestown Distributors. It’s something to think about the next time you pull your boat to get it painted.

Splicing Ropes — a Handy Guide

Recently, I’ve ended up needing to splice three strand, double braid, and hollow braid polypropylene ropes — though fortunately not to each other. While having the correct sizes and type of fids helps, it’s useful to have a guide to help navigate the complexities and ease frustration.

For the moment, the only tips I can offer is when splicing double braid, sweat the cover back over the splice using a hitch in a bungee cord (this saves your hands), also keep working the cover as you pull the core back through.

New England Ropes has a free handy Guide to Splicing that you can download.

A glitchy shower pump and learning how to stay afloat

Pearl has had a problem with the shower pan in the head filling up for a while. This has driven me nuts. Sometimes it fills faster than others, other times, it’s fine and bone dry. The fundamental problem was that water was siphoning back through the shower pump, but given several other factors, none of this made sense. The problem could be easily fixed by installing a loop with a vacuum break to prevent the siphoning but didn’t answer why the problem occurred intermittently.

A couple of days ago, I decided to dismantle the self priming diaphragm Jabsco Shower Pump that seemed to be the source if the problem. Once taken apart, the problem was obvious and simply resolved. Hair had got through the pump guard (filter) and was breaking the seal on the pump that prevented back flow.

While aggravating, this project taught me a lot. The first is that diaphragm pumps are a pretty good solution for situations where there might be back pressure, as well where the pump needed to be self priming, and/or possibly run dry without burning out. The second, which is more important, is that the same pump (more or less) empties out Pearl’s bilges. The third, is that backing plates on the through hull fittings will be a very good addition when the boat gets pulled to have the bottom painted.

For the most part, the Jabsco diaphragm pump is a works well to keep the bilge clear of drips. In the event of a real problem, however, like failure of a through hull fitting, I didn’t think there there is no way it would keep keep up with the influx of water. So, i decided to run the numbers.

On average, Pearl’s through hull fittings are between 1″ and 2″ in diameter, and they are somewhere between 6″ and 12″ below the waterline. My question was how many gallons per minute would that generate, and what sized bilge pumps would I need to accommodate that influx of water. As it turns out, this is the inverse of the “emptying a tank” problem that many of us had to solve in college. I have a vague recollection of how to calculate the answer, BUT as it turns out there is an easier solution, an online flow rate calculator (see http://www.efunda.com/formulae/fluids/draining_tank.cfm#calc).

The net of this story is that I need to size my bilge pump(s) better. Fortunately, this isn’t too hard a problem to solve. West Marine had 2000 gph bilge pumps on sale for $100 ea this week, and the locating them and running the required hose isn’t too much of a problem. This is, however, and important consideration even if you leave your boat parked at the dock and aren’t planning to go sailing.

Depth of spout (ft):	0.50	1.00	1.50	2.00	0.50	1.00	1.50	2.00
Spout exit diameter (in):	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00

Exit Velocity, V (ft/s):	5.67	8.04	9.84	11.35	5.67	8.02	9.83	11.30
Volume Flowrate (gal/min):	13.60	19.20	23.60	2.72	54.40	77.00	94.30	109.00
Volume Flow Rate (gal/hr)	816.00	1152.00	1416.00	163.20	3264.00	4620.00	5658.00	6540.00

A “Ghetto-Fabulous” Inexpensive Boat Airconditioner in 5 Steps

Not to denigrate ghettos in any way since several of my closest friends live in them, …. The solution that Lisa and I came up with for an air conditioner with which to survive summer in Florida was literally that: a jerry rigged but very effective, inexpensive installation. Yes, it does make Pearl look a little bit like the Clampett’s truck, but I can live with that for the moment. At least we aren’t sweating.

Requirements for a Ghetto-Fabulous AC

An appropriately sized AC for your boat
A suitable place (like a forward hatch) to install it
A roll of non-marking 3M Duct Tape
A sheet of plexiglass
About 2 feet of bath-liner vinyl (this is pretty wide so you need to cut it down)
Installation Instructions

Cut a rectangular piece of plexiglass approximately the width and height of the front of the AC
Square the AC off in front of one of the forward hatches so that the plexiglass sits on the hatch at an angle
Attach the plexiglass just above the air intake panel for the AC
Drape the bath liner vinyl over the AC so that it covers the front of the AC that would be inside the window in which it’s installed and tape it to the AC
Fold or cut the vinyl as required so that it can be taped to the deck.

That’s pretty much all it takes to get up and running. You can make the system more efficient by taping the plexiglass to the vinyl sheet. There will be other tweaks you can make depending on your boat, but this is about as quick, dirty, and effective as it gets.

There are several people I know who install window style ac units in the companionway. That turns into a huge pain as you have to clamber over it every time you try to get in or out of the cabin.

We’d love to hear if you have a better idea on how to cool your boat for cheap!

Airconditioning — to sweat or not to sweat

Having finally go back on Pearl after essentially six months of traveling around (Portland, Atlanta, 3 cross country trips, South Carolina, etc.,), Pearl is in serious need of some TLC. Given that it summer in Florida, one of the first orders of business as far as I was concerned was to get the boat air conditioned again. Without an AC, working below decks makes working in a sauna sound attractive.

So, on to the ACs. There are three basic options for air conditioning one’s sailboat. The one you choose, as with anything else, depends on a combination of budget, storage space, and aesthetics.

Option #1: Sea Water Cooled ACs

This the ideal. It’s integrated with the boat, making it a magical oasis of blissful cool in the tropical sun. All you need to do is plug into shore power or fire up your generator and the magic will happen — but for a price. These babies cost about $2500 for the necessary hardware and about the same for installation by a professional. As an added benefit, these ACs can also be used as heaters if you happen to be somewhere cold. Check out this handy guide at Dometic for more details.

Option #2: Portable ACs

This was the first option I tried. The basic idea is that you park the air conditioner some place in the salon or head, run the ducting to a port light, power it up and you are off to the races. Sounds simple enough, and really is — until you get hit by rain, have to close the port light so the boat doesn’t get flooded, and en up broiling below decks.

I was really pretty excited about this option (actually used it for most of last year) and it worked pretty well until Lisa and Harley came on board. Adding two more bodies seriously cut down on the available space and increased the heating requirements. Next.

Option #3: Window Unit

On first glance, a “Window Shaker” seems like the least attractive option for adding AC to the boat, but as it turns out, this solution has great merit. Firstly, this is the least cost per BTU if you get a household unit from Home Depot. Secondly, you don’t lose interior space. Thirdly, if installed correctly, it works great even it it’s raining! Ok, so it looks a bit “ghetto,” to have an AC strapped on deck, but for the price, I can live with that.

Summary

Initially, I was really keen on getting a sea water cooled system, but given a choice between spending $5000 on an AC or comparable amounts on either a water maker or upgrading the navionics, I decided to choose the latter. My rationale here is that if we are cruising, we aren’t likely to be using the AC too much as I don’t want to add a big generator, the fuel to run it, blah, blah. Quite frankly, I would rather have balmy tropical breezes at an anchorage. Air conditioning, however, is mandatory when you are at a slip where there is access to shore-power etc. If we find ourselves at a slip outside the US for any length of time, my guess is that we would be able to replicate the window-shaker solution for relatively low cost.

More shortly on how to I handled installing a Window Shaker Air Conditioner on Pearl….