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 ...

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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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