Carina Gets Juiced

. . . WELL, IN AN ELECTRICAL SENSE

Like a house, a sailboat needs juice – power -- to run its systems, such as the refrigerator, lights, water pressure and even the laptop. After Christmas, Carina's power started declining, a serious problem on any boat. We became extra careful to turn off lights, unplug the laptop, and eliminate any glowing light at night because they were draining the batteries.

Under sail, we recharge the batteries by running the diesel engine for a couple of hours as we leave an anchorage or marina. It happens without a lot of thought as we sail on our way. But when we stopped last month to moor in Boot Key Harbor, recharging became a daily task. We ran the engine in neutral for about 90 minutes or ran our Honda 2000 generator that our good neighbor, Rob, shipped to us.

Keeping Carina’s eight-year-old batteries charged became more and more troublesome as they took longer to charge and held less and less of a charge. Lucky break #1 is that it happened at a place where there are so many marine services.

After a visit to Sea, Air, Land Technologies (SALT), we gave Carina – and ourselves -- a late Christmas present of dependable power. Two new 215 amp Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries were installed over the holidays.  We had SALT install them as they weighed 125# each and were in an awkward location.

In just a few hours, John with SALT took the old batteries out 

of Carina and installed these two new Lifeline batteries. 

Sun, keep on a shinin'

The second part of this gift of power was solar panels. We moved Carina to the Marathon Marina for a day to have two 135 watt solar panels installed, along with the framework to hold them above the bimini and to brace the additional weight. Lucky break #2 is that we are getting a 30 percent tax credit under the green initiative for the entire project – batteries and panels -- and no Florida sales tax!

Kent and David, with SALT, fit the custom stainless frame to the bimini frame. 

Although it doesn't look it, the two panels were placed well behind the boom, 

allowing it to swing out without hitting them as the boom is released.

Kent smiles big as David makes the last adjustments to the 

installed panels. Back braces were later added to the frame.

Now we can sleep easier knowing that Carina has dependable batteries and a way to rejuice them that doesn’t require fuel or tie us to the boat. All we need is for the sun to shine.

UPDATE: The solar panels produced more amps than we used today. Hooray!! They worked.