Weekend On The Boat

Spending Saturday and Sunday on the boat.  Came to find snow all over. The electricity stayed on. No blown barkers and the new heat bar appears to have worked.   Question is, how much electricity did it use.

 

Took a photo of our electricity meter and then set to work shovelling off the snow from the deck. 

The hydrometer said plus 80 percent water in the air when we left. After six days of the heat bar and two fans ( the solar powered one stopped when it was covered in snow). The hydrometer read 63%. Looks like a successful attempt. How much did the heating bar cost us in electricity? Left the boat with a meter reading of 18391 and came to a meter of 18398. A difference of 7kw.  At 0.095 cents a kilowatt.  It cost 66.5 cents to run the bar and charge the batteries.  Will take another reading when we leave as the heater is on 24/7 to keep us warm.

 

Plan to do no real work.  Its relaxing time. Went to the pub and took some photos.

 

Update:

 

When we left the boat the electricity meter read 18428 a difference of 30 from when we arrived.  This means that the 1500 watt heater, electricity, stove electric blanket, and kettle cost $2.85 to run. Not bad I guess for the winter.... could be worse. 

Small Sunday work.

Did some work on the boat. Installed a new C cell Nicad battery in the recently installed used solar vent fan. Only needed a new battery.  Yahoo. Plus installed a Golden Rod 38 watt heater bar to keep the boat warmer then the outside. Reduce moisture, and promote air circulation.

Hpwever new problem.  The window is still leaking.  Last repair was not so good. 

Small Craft Warning.

Today went for a sail. The weather calls for bad weather. It neve came. With the exception of the bay coming into port, we had no less then 1.7 knots under sail.

Working on the bilge pump

Today is rainy and wet. However the weather is less terrible then the marine forecast said it would be.   I need to install a check valve to stop the water in the bilge line from flowing back into the bilge. The rain in Squamish has not let up for a long time.  This was the most wster I've seen in the bilge ever. If I waited a third week the water might have been into the boat.  Perhaps it's time to get a bilge with an automatic float. The job was easy, hope it works. One test resulted in too much volume in the line to push the water out. However every test since has worked fine.

Earl Grey Blog the birth of history.

Hello All

I would like you thank you for visiting my story for our Columbia 26 Mkii sailboat.  Though this boat is almost a year old and we have done much in that time we have not documented it well with the exception of photos.  So this blog is designed to showcase past, present, and future projects and voyages.  I hope you can enjoy in sharing our accomplishments and hopefully  few failures allong the way.