Electric Cooking

Sailing into the Future: Embracing Electric Cooking on Our Sailboat Sailing is a journey of constant innovation and adaptation, and this philosophy extends to every aspect of life on the water – even cooking. In a bold move away from traditional propane systems, many sailors are now embracing electric cooking methods as a cleaner, more […]

Batteries

The Comforts of Home

The Hanging Locker Dilemma One challenge that every cruiser faces, is creating the comforts of home, especially on a small sailboat with limited storage space. Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or an extended voyage, efficient organization is key to ensuring a clutter-free sailing adventure. We take a closer look at how to transform our […]

Solar panels

New Solar Panels

As much as we love our canoe-stern, it has its drawbacks – like a place to mount solar panels.  A lot of people add a big arch to the back of the cockpit to mount solar panels, dinghy davits, and other things.  We considered adding an arch but opted not to mostly due to cost, […]

Voltage Regulator

Installing a Balmar External Voltage Regulator

While I don’t recommend intentionally frying your alternator, frying ours last summer pushed this project to the top of our to-do list and I’m glad it did.  We spent a lot of money on our Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries and with a new alternator and external voltage regulator I feel more at ease that the […]

Alternator

First Overnight Anchorage and Alternator Autopsy

First Overnight Anchorage A couple of months ago we finally got to take SVRO out for an overnight trip.  We left Friday after work and headed south along the San Joaquin River.  The wind was blowing maybe 3 knots so we weren’t able to sail, but the motor was running fine.  Our batteries were at […]

Victron

Power Management (Victron Multiplus)

Victron Multiplus We bought a new Victron Multiplus 3000 watt charger/inverter in November 2017 and finally finished installing it.  Here’s a little video of what we did. CO Detectors Rich had a little time off work so he was able to finished up a few little projects as well.  We have two carbon monoxide detectors […]

LiFePO4

LiFePO4 Batteries

LiFePO4 vs. AGM Plan A for our batteries were the Firefly International Energy AGMs (absorbed glass mat). Earlier this year we heard about a this newer technology for AGM batteries called Microcell which is a carbon foam.  Originally it was developed by Caterpillar, Inc. for their heavy machinery.  They sold the patent to Firefly International […]