First, those landlubbers among you perhaps don’t realize a few of the realities of living on a boat. Other than a few short stops to take on fuel and water, the boat has not been connected to a dock in nearly four weeks. This means we have had no electricity other than what we generate, we have created most of our water and we have had to dispose of garbage and waste from the toilet holding tanks. Almost every day, we think about these issues whereas ashore, they are much less a part of our lives.
Fuel is the least of our concern because Sirius has a ridiculous amount of fuel tankage. We have five tanks that hold over 400 gallons of diesel. Not only does this allow the engine a tremendous range, but it also enables us to run our diesel generator and make electricity every day. Most of the systems on the boat consume 12 volts, so we largely rely on a bank of batteries to power things (cell phones are an important part of that equation, as are computers). A few things require 110V, including Jae’s hair dryer and the microwave she uses to heat her chai lattes. But these run only briefly and so consume few amps. We also have a TV in the main salon that we occasionally use to watch a movie. It is LED and uses few amps. It can also display the navigation charts from the computer. All the lights are LED’s and so are low amperage as well. The stove is propane, as is the grill that sits on the stern rail. Our biggest power hog is the three box refrigerator, one of which is a freezer that has kept ice the whole trip. I am hoping we can improve on the insulation of these boxes when we return home because I fear that in warmer waters, they will consume quite a bit more amps.
We do our best to make water with our new watermaker. That has been difficult as I have previously written, however, because the water quality in many places has been poor and the filter becomes clogged and must be discarded. We now carry so many filters that we could open a small retail operation specializing in filter sales in the harbor. We expected to be drowning in fresh water, but instead we have been stingily wetting ourselves in the shower, turning the water off, soaping up, and then one rinse. This is compounded by the problem of one tank having an apparent air leak that causes the water pump to continually try to build pressure. That is bad for the pump, causes it to overheat and eventually would destroy it. So, instead of having three tanks full with 50 gallons of water each, we are limping along with two that are only partially full and always in danger of being empty. In the grand scheme of things, it is not that big a deal and we are adjusted to it by now. Here in Nantucket, as in many other places, we can also go ashore and take a shower -- where the water flows freely and is always warm or hot.
Garbage is pretty easy. When we have a full bag, we put it in the dinghy where it waits to be taken ashore. If we were offshore for many days, the dinghy might get pretty full, in which case we would have other deck storage for it. Also, farther offshore, you can put certain items overboard. There are rules for what can be dumped overboard and where, all of which are posted in our navigation cubicle. Some things, like plastic, can never go overboard. We follow those rules closely.
Human waste is kept in holding tanks. We have two heads, fore and aft, and each has its own holding tank. Inside of three miles, this waste cannot be put overboard, but outside of three miles, we can do so. We may also use pumpout facilities to vacuum the tanks’ contents, so to speak. This is pretty straightforward, but you must keep the hose centered over and pressed down on the deck opening, or things will get quite unpleasant. One boating nightmare is a problem with the heads or the holding tanks. We thought we had such a problem in Dutch Harbor with the forward head, but it turned out to be an easy solution that only involved pumping out that tank. Thank goodness.
We have a plethora of electronic equipment aboard. It is almost all related to navigation and weather and it includes redundant systems. We also turn to paper charts, which we carry and consult daily. I have become totally enamored of one reference book, Eldridge’s Tide and Pilot Book 2017, which has covered East Coast waters since 1875. In this book, you can learn about tidal currents for the East River in Manhattan, the Cape Cod Canal, Woods Hole and so on, which are all very tricky places to navigate if you arrive at the wrong time. It has diagrams for key places that show how the currents change during each hour of the tidal cycle. I have studied the diagrams for the Pollock Rip Channel quite a bit for our trip later this week to Westport, MA. So far, all of our timing has been right!
The electronics, like my old VCR, offer far more functionality than my digital immigrant brain will ever absorb. When I plot a course on the computer, if I include departure date and time, the computer will calculate the tidal currents, adverse and favorable, and will adjust our nominal speed of 7 knots to account for those variations. The tidal currents and their velocity appear on the chartplotter, which is the Ipad like display that the helmsman consults while steering our boat. Thanks to a technology called AIS, we can identify many other boats out on the water, their course and speed and determine if there is any risk of collision. Coming up the Jersey coast, we constantly used this feature and the data point called CPA (closest possible approach) to judge the risk of collision with another boat. The chartplotter constantly recalculates these values and considers both boats’ speed and headings. It is amazing, especially at night.
I could go on about all of this, but perhaps the landlubber reader has had enough, while the boating reader lost interest long ago.
I also wanted to comment on a few photos that reflect on boating life. First, you see below a picture of the Nantucket public dinghy dock.
f it looks like boating gridlock, that’s because it is. When you approach this dock, you have to figure out how to nose in, push other boats out of the way, or climb over them to tie your boat to the dock. Sometimes, we cruise around looking at the dock for a while, trying to find an opening. Somehow, one always presents itself, even if it means climbing over a few other boats to reach the dock.
The next picture is of pilings in Provincetown, MA.
The tidal range there is 10 feet. No big deal for New Englanders, especially north of the Cape, but for us southerners, this is a whole new world. When we went ashore in Wellfleet in the dinghy, which only needs about 2 feet of water, we were aground in the afternoon and had to wait in a bar, during happy hour, before we could return to the boat. That was tough duty. I think the tide is the real reason Massachusetts outlawed alcoholic happy hours and requires us to pay full freight on the booze, but not on the food.
You would never guess the next picture, but it shows the inventiveness that boating life sometimes requires. It is our niece Sonya’s IPhone, playing music amplified by a go-cup. We were in the Norwalk Yacht Club and she was trying to provide music for our merry little group.
The next picture shows our friend Valerie with Jae in a launch, going ashore in Ptown.
Valerie is graciously holding our laundry bag, while also doing a product endorsement for the detergent Jae used to wash the clothes. Launches like this one are big, diesely boats that come right alongside, take you ashore and bring you back. Some of the young people we have met on these launches hardly seem old enough to have drivers’ licenses, but they have all handled the boats quite expertly and in some challenging water and wind conditions.
Finally, I feel compelled to include a Nantucket sunset picture.
We have seen any number of beautiful sunsets. This picture, while not of a watery horizon, reminds me to mention that there is an argument among boaters over the existence of something called the green flash. Supposedly, in the final instant that the sun is dipping below a horizon on the water, if the air is clear at the horizon, there is a green flash. Some swear it exists and other deny it. Many believe it is the product of a rum-infused imagination. Jae and I have looked for it all over the place, with and without rum, and have never seen it. It remains a mystery to us.