Major Project Completed - What is Next?

 We have now been in Boot Key Harbor for more than a month. We are really settling into a routine that includes listening to the cruisers net on the radio, then Pickleball in the morning followed by either Mexican Train Dominos or Bocce Ball in the afternoon. That is followed by a happy hour at a local restaurant/bar. We have been having a great time and making many new friends. Have I mentioned that we really like this place?

A beautiful full moon over the harbor on a still night. 

We got the call last Tuesday that On Board Rigging was ready to get started doing the power upgrade to our boat. The upgrade went on Tuesday, Wednesday and finished up on Friday at 8 PM. Dan did most of the work and he did an amazing job. They started by swapping out our AGM house batteries with 400 ah of Lithium batteries. That is how we were left after the first day. The second day, Gabe joined in the fun and installed a 400 Watt LG reflective solar panel. This panel actually gathers power on both sides and because it is hanging off the stern of the boat, when our dinghy is not there, we will get reflective collection off of the water. I was worried about the mounting of the big panel, but it is solid as a rock. Gabe also moved our two forward panels to get the rear one out from under the arch. I really like the mounting system he used on those as well. Dan installed the two new solar charge controllers and continued the rewiring of the battery compartment. 

Gabe working on moving our front solar panels to get better sun exposure.

This is a look from the cabin top of our solar array

Here is a look of what it looks like from the side. SHIFT is looking pretty high tech.

Dan came back on Friday and installed the wiring for the big solar panel and then installed our Victron Multi-plus Inverter/Charger. After he was done we ran many tests to make sure it all worked to his satisfaction. We tweaked the settings on the system and all looked good until the final test. We ran the generator in conjunction with the batteries to handle a very heavy load. It kept tripping out, so Dan then did a total rewire of the AC part of my main panel. It now works perfectly. He stayed until 8:00 pm to make sure all was good. I was very impressed by his work ethic. 

This is the Inverter/Charger. 

This is the main battery compartment. Positive and Negative bus bars at the top, a Smart shunt on the right and then the starter battery on top and two of the 4 lithium batteries on the bottom.

This is the second battery compartment. You can see one of the two Lithium batteries and then the big solar controller. You can also see the DC to DC charger that runs off of the starter battery when the engine is running to provide another charging option for the lithium bank. There is also another solar charge controller in this compartment.  

One of the really cool things about this system is that you monitor the system through an app on your phone. I love it!

We are now able to do things we could never do before. We can turn on the hot water heater and heat water with electricity that we got from the sun. We can toast bread in our toaster, we can use our microwave. I could watch TV all night if I want. (unfortunately we have no TV reception in this area.) I even run my CPAP off of my inverter all night and still have close to 80% of my battery capacity left in the morning.  No more going to shore to charge my external CPAP battery. This is truly a game changer for our life on the hook.  

I am sure some of the readers of this blog are wondering how much this all cost. Well that number is just shy of $9000 dollars. That really sounds like a lot of money, but we have heard of other boats paying way north of $30,000 for larger installations. This is expensive stuff to keep the crew happy. I look at this as another commitment to this lifestyle. We are loving it and this will make it even better. 

Now that we are done with this major upgrade, we are starting to think about what is next. We talked to our daughter, Shannon the other day and they were looking for something to do for Spring Break. They had been planning a cruise, but they decided to cancel that. I mentioned that the annual Seafood Fest in Marathon was going on the week of their spring break.  I was pleasantly surprised when she started thinking about it. Well, now they have decided to make a trip to Disney and then come down to the Keys. We are very excited to have Brian, Shannon, Isabella, Will and Amelia come for a visit. It will be a bit tight on the boat, but it will only be for 3 nights. Hopefully we will have some nice weather and we can go out for a sail or do some snorkeling. 

After they leave we will then start looking for a weather window to head to the Bahamas. We are hoping the government of the Bahamas will relax their COVID restrictions by then to make it easier to cross over. I will talk about what we are looking at in my next entry.