On this week's episode of Onboard Lifestyle we muddle through a few projects as we respond to re-occurring questions in our comment section. The weather has ...
Closed Captions (CC):
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hey guys welcome back to SV basic we've
been getting a lot of the same questions
in the comment section of all our videos
so today we're going to answer them and
we're gonna do some boat projects so sit
back relax and enjoy this week's episode
of onboard lifestyle so it's that time a
month again where I am in charge of
topping off all of our batteries we have
the trojan t105 batteries and we have
six of them right now this is kind of a
pain in the butt job but it has to be
done and they've been working quite well
for us you know there's a lot of
questions that we've gotten about why we
haven't taken that leap to lithium and
there's a number of reasons right now
yes of course we would love to go to
lithium right now but and actually we
will be taking that jump but just not
yet because we already have these
batteries and they're working really
well for us it just seems so wasteful
for us to just get rid of these to
upgrade there are so many pros two
lithium's and we know that you know
there's the fact that they hold a longer
charge we can use more of the power than
we would with these flooded batteries
but also you know the biggest thing
right now is the cost you know the
amount you know that it cost us to do
these batteries we'd only give us one
battery and yes you know a lot of people
say one battery at this point going
lithium is a lot better but until we
have used these up we're not going to
take that jump just yet so in the
meantime I go in here because let's be
real I'm a lot smaller than teal and
it's easier for me to get into these
tight
can find spaces and then that's the
other thing too you know we do make sure
that these areas these tight areas with
this type of I guess emissions is vented
out so we do have a fan in here that
sucks the air out and outside so don't
worry about that I hope you got it
covered okay this next topic we get
quite a few comments on people wanting
to know more about it and how we like it
you know we've touched on it a few times
in a few videos but the questions keep
coming so we're gonna take a minute and
talk a little bit about our diesel
heaters
we purchased these heaters on Amazon for
about a hundred and eighty dollars each
we have two 5kw so that's a total of ten
kilowatts of diesel heat in this locker
alone now the installation was pretty
straightforward I not saying it was easy
it took a little bit of planning and
layout because of the exhaust pipe this
exhaust actually as it comes out of the
unit I was reading temperatures in the
mid 400s so I had to take special care
to make sure that we had enough
clearance as it passes through bulkheads
or near anything I did put a high
temperature pipe wrap on there to bring
that temperature down and everything
seems to be just running perfectly I did
put two de tanks in here and I only use
these de tanks because I was testing
these units I wasn't sure that these
units we're gonna be our long-term
source of heat but now that we've been
running them for a few months they are
here to stay we will be adding one more
of these units in the aft cabins to get
a little more heat back into some areas
where these do not reach these de tanks
actually are pretty efficient I just put
a couple gallons and at a time and it
seems to be just sipping the fuel long
term I will get rid of these de tanks
and put a permanent tank in the front
Locker my plan is to have a deck fill
and have that permanently plumbed in so
I won't have to bring diesel into the
cabin to fuel these heaters I was
concerned about potential carbon
monoxide or any other fumes that came
off this we do smell a little bit of
diesel right on startup and right on
shutdown but it's short lived only lasts
about a minute and while they're running
it burns clean and fume free I did put a
carbon monoxide detector in this locker
and I was running this unit earlier
today
and it reads zero I've yet to see any
carbon monoxide buildup in this locker
the big thing that I noticed too is the
weight of these units they barely weigh
anything that a wool Bosto heating unit
that we had in here
it weighed 90 pounds these are swayed a
few pounds each so we gained in that
respect as well you know I read quite a
bit on forums that these units can be
loud I did insulate this compartment and
the pumps actually do have a little
clicking sound but with the doors closed
and we're up in the cabin and they're
both running it is undetectable it has
not bothered us one bit so the short
answer is are we happy of these we are
tickled these give us the option to heat
the boat while we're underway
our old unit was a low cost Oh 110
system and we would had to run a
generator or inverter and it would have
just sucked our batteries down so this
has been an amazing setup for us and
we're happy we did it so my mom's inside
cooking lunch I love her cooking it's
always super delicious and my dad's
working on the winch handle holders so
I'm gonna tackle the next question which
is a funny one where does compass go to
the bathroom when we go and watch what
goes to the bathroom then but when we're
on the phone
he's trained to go on the P package he
learned when he was a puppy like almost
the first day well we've got a few
things done this morning answered a few
questions already I'm gonna have a
little break and try to answer a few
more and get a few more things done this
afternoon
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okay
doing a quick project here I want to put
a line bag on this bulkhead want to get
rid of the bucket this just fills with
water and keeps the line soaked okay
while I'm doing my project here I'm
gonna answer another comment that we get
probably five times a video and that is
why don't we head south well the short
answer is we are going south we're just
held up in Port here due to weather and
that's gonna happen to us occasionally
there's gonna be places in this world
where we're gonna have to camp out for a
little bit and wait for a good window
for us to go we're not interested in
heading out to sea making a beeline to
Mexico and missing all of the West Coast
we want to hit as many port of calls as
we can we want to experience what there
is to experience that's what that's what
we're about
it's not a race for us it's a lifestyle
so while we're here
I'll get some things done even if
weather snotty you know right now in the
Pacific Northwest there's a lot of
variables to pay attention to as we're
looking for that next weather window you
know every port that we go into for the
next few hundred miles is gonna be a
river system and the river systems all
have bar conditions and in the winter
when the seas are up the weather is up
the bars are up and they're dangerous so
there's many factors that we have to
look at we have to look at a good bar to
get out of here and a good bar to get
into the next port we have to watch
weather we have to watch the sea State
and you know what it's been ugly
be the first to admit it we're looking
for that window now well we've been
looking for the pass we've been looking
for and when it hits us we're going so
until then
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and this is just one other thing to
think about when you're traveling in the
Pacific Northwest this time of year all
these crab boats I mean look at every
dock here
there's hundreds of crabbing boats in
this marina alone and each of them have
hundreds of pots crab season opens
tomorrow
it's gonna be a minefield out there so
we'll be traveling daylight hours as we
get through this part of the world so
we'll factor that in as well but the Sun
poked out for a second I was able to
finish up my line handling bag and I
think I'm gonna like it
look at that keeps the lines out of the
bucket here's the mount keeps them nice
and dry it's in a nice location I think
I'll add one more over here
for this other wedge so while teal and
Emma are working on their next project
let's talk solar this is one of those
things that we've had numerous questions
about and that is our solar consumption
and our power on a full sunny day we put
out about 20 amps of power which is more
than enough for us right now because
we're we have constant overcast and
cloud cover we're putting out about 5
amps which is okay it actually keeps up
with our power usage done and installed
has been we really kind of think about
how much it draws so our biggest draw is
our refrigeration system so we have kind
of come up with other creative ways of
not consuming as much power since we're
not generating a lot of power and even
though we have LED lights on board we
don't use our house bank as much for our
lights and you know with it getting
darker earlier in the day and lighter
later in the day as well you know we
came up with other ways of lighting our
boat without using our house bank and
one of it is these little puck solar
lights and you probably have seen it
throughout our videos it really works
and healed and Emma are actually
installing these little hammock hooks
that we have had installed all
throughout the boat which work great
because our little puck lights
and we can put it in tight little areas
that we don't or we wouldn't usually
have light in there so that's what we're
doing right now and it's been working
out great so I didn't answer the second
part of this which is is this enough no
I don't think it's enough just yet we
plan on adding another 500 watts once we
build a hardtop and I think at that
point we're at a thousand we'll revisit
that question if it's enough at that
point and then you know it's another two
part because people ask if we're going
to be getting a wind turbine or a wind
generator and you know we have one on
our last boat we did and I'm really not
a fan of wind generators they put on a
lot of power I get that but I don't like
moving parts for power I love the aspect
of the low-maintenance solar it's so
economical right and that's why I think
we'll stick with solar it's one moving
part it's constantly it's rigid to the
boat you don't generating power all the
time
it's just solders the way to go is in
our minds you know and we have the space
for it so why not optimize what we have
for real estate and tack on more panels
they have I'm excited for those the
flexible ones too so we can put it as
for our solar assisted water we'll see
as you can see we're not on the boat the
marina was doing some constructor work
on our docks so we thought it would be
great to just get off the boat for a day
while they make their mess and we picked
up this little seaside cottage right on
the beach and it's literally 200 yards
from our boat so it's a cute little
place for us to just hang out and
decompress compass gets a little more
room to just exercise and I am
definitely taking full advantage of this
jacuzzi tub so we thought we'd approach
the last two comments reoccurring
comments that we get while we're here
that is did we leave premature and sails
and rigging the thing is where's our
main we have a minute we do have a main
we do have a main well let's talk about
that look let's talk do we leave
premature first let's look at that it's
a tough question and a tough answer
because yes and no I think that I don't
think we left premature because we've
been working so hard it's so long so
long on this boat that is the book done
no it's not done I don't think there's
any boat out there that's completely
100% down no there's always gonna be
something that you have to upgrade or
replace or fix we feel we made sure that
the life and safety items were done yeah
and we decided as a family let's start
traveling and start moving down the
coast and we'll finish the boat during
our journey I think it's been good we've
been kind of able to shake the book down
and see what we need and what we don't
need already you know that's the other
thing too you know I guess for the past
six months we've been kind of easing
into the whole cruising lifestyle and
now I'm seeing there's a ton of stuff we
don't even need I'm ready unloading a
ton of stuff and there's things that I
think that we need as well that we're
adding on so it's it's virtual I think
it's just
it's wife and it's changes it's a
process it's a process yeah and it's
also just learning what works for you as
a family and you know in our cruising
lifestyle and I really don't want to
wait another year to take Emma out on
this trip we want it to be an experience
for her and for us
I think it's been I don't regret leaving
when we left at all you know I think
it's been we've had some interesting
experiences some great experiences I
know Emma what do you think so far have
you had fun yeah I mean it's not perfect
all the time but know whose life is
exactly so we got some weather right now
who cares right we'll manage through
that but let's talk a little bit about
sales and sales and rigging and the
reason why we haven't put our our main
up is because we're going through piece
by piece of our rigging to ensure that
it's safe for us to put the main back up
that's right this this rig is you know
it's got some years on it and we want to
make sure that everything's sound we're
going through every stay every shroud
every turnbuckle
there's a lot of components to our
systems and so we're gonna make sure
that we feel comfortable with the rig
and then the main goes up and that
should happen here I've been hopefully
pretty since I feel better and better
about it you went up there a few times
now to just kind of check everything up
there and there's places turn there's
items that you know and you've made a
notation of what needs to be replaced
and and we're starting to collect those
items and they're all gone back in so
yeah and there's things that we can do
and there's things that obviously we're
gonna have to have a rigger come out and
look at everything once we've had it
done but it's it's great it's learning
your boat and having confidence in it
and I love that we're doing it ourselves
and having some input as well so I don't
think that we're premature and I'm so
excited to get that made up obviously
it's an older main so we'll see how it
performs and then maybe upgrade yeah and
maybe at that point we may tweak it a
little bit or right get a new
in the meantime why not work with what
you have and I think that's a great game
plan for us is the main that came with
the boat has been in storage it's in
great shape
well I'd say it's an okay okay yes so
we'll we'll fly that man for a while
yeah technology's changed but you know
why not it's Seymour that's right we'll
try for a while and if it needs
upgrading we'll make that decision yeah
so and we know who to call I hope we
answered to your questions in the video
so if you like this episode don't forget
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kuzey
