Our Boat man in Jacksonville, Rodger, was on the boat today to install an inverter for our new freezer. On our last trip, we got a 2.1 cf (small) freezer from Amazon. Our built-in refrigerator in the galley does not have a freezer. For the past two years, when we use a freezer, we use a tiny portable one that we keep on the fly bridge and plug into a 12v outlet.
The new freezer is a 115v AC model. We have AC power when we are connected to dock side shore power or when we run the generator. We want the freezer to run when we are underway without having to run the generator, so we decided to get an inverter. The inverter is connected to the battery bank and converts DC battery power to AC power. You plug the freezer into the inverter.
We can also use the inverter to power our portable ice maker. It works like the freezer on AC power. This will let us have ice when we are underway! Yea!
My "Rescue Tape" package came today in the mail. I bought two rolls of this heavy duty silicon tape to have as an emergency repair tool in case we blow something on the trip. It was recommended by a Looper whom we met at the Fall Rendezvous last year. The first use will be to wrap the skeg on my dinghy outboard so that I can bang it around the decks without scratching anything. Hope it works.
When we marked our anchor chain a couple of weeks ago at Huckins in JAX, we found that we only had 100' on the boat. Anchoring is a science. You have to find the right bottom where the anchor will dig in and hold. You also have to have the right "scope" on your chain or line anchor rode. The scope is the length of anchor line or chain and the angle it produces from the bottom up to where it attaches to the bow (front) of the boat. The longer the rode, the less the angle and the better the anchor digs into the bottom.
The minimum scope recommended for normal anchoring is a 5:1 setup. This means that you put out 5' of anchor rode for every foot between where your rode is connected to the boat plus the depth of the water. In our case, our anchor connection point is about 5, above the water, so we have to add 5' to the water depth, then multiple this by 5 to get the length of anchor rode needed.
A better "scope" for holding the boat in winds or stormy weather or areas of strong current, is a 7:1 scope. So, for this setup, you take the distance from the bow of the boat to the bottom and multiply by 7. Both 5 and 7 scopes will eat up 100' of anchor line or chain in a hurry. A 5:1 scope on 100' will let us anchor in 15' of water. A 7:1 scope on our 100' will let us anchor in 9' of water. This is not real deep once we get out of the more shallow water in the South.
I have been wrestling with what to do, and today I have come to grips with adding about 100' of rope that I can attach to the chain with a shackle if I need to. I can work around the anchor windlass with the line by doing some gymnastics, but having the extra capability will give me peace of mind. Now to verify the line size and get the line. Just another thing on the list.
Just saw where today is the 20th anniversary of the great snowfall of 1993 in Alabama. March 12, and we had 4-8" of snow in Central Alabama and over 12" in the Northern part of the state where we were living then. Our daughter got stuck at Auburn for several days where she was attending a Band Camp as a senior in high school. Time flys when you are having fun!!
Thanks for reading.
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