Saturday, July 14, 2012

Power to spare




When you live onboard a sailboat, keeping your batteries charged is a constant concern.  Everything electric runs off the batteries.  Lights, refrigeration, water pressure, navigation instruments, cell phone batteries and the stereo all place demands on the system.  Big boats have generators and when the batteries get low, they start the generator and charge everything up.  We don’t have a generator.  What we do have is a new solar panel.  While we have been in the North Channel, we have had lots of sunny days and the panel has been able to keep up with all our energy demands.  This picture is the number of amp hours we are receiving from our panel.  So far, we have been able to sit at anchor and produce as much electricity as we need to keep things running. 

We spent the night of July 3rd in at Bedford Harbor and watched a great moon rise over the island.  We were one of two boats anchored here.  We trolled all around the bay, but did not catch any fish. 

On July 4th, we left Bedford and headed into Little Current for a pump-out and supplies.  Like Meldrum Bay, Little Current has undergone a big make over on the waterfront.  There are all new docks, new bathrooms and great walkway that takes you to the top of the hill, very near the grocery store.  It cuts the walk to the store in half.  While we were there we learned that a cruise ship was coming in on the 5th.  Just before we were ready to leave, it came in and docked.  They brought buses in to take the passengers to see a pow-wow at the First Nation (Reservation.)  


From Little Current we had a great sail up the Wabano Channel to a small secluded anchorage, called Sturgeon Cove.  We were the only boat here our first night and as I write this, it appears we will have it to ourselves again tonight.  It is tricky getting in here, as the entrance is guarded by some nasty rocks.  We weaved our way through them, but had no trouble.  The bass fishing here has been pretty good.  They like to hang out under the boat and seem to love night crawlers.  Tomorrow night we are going to do a taste test and cook some bass and some pickerel (Canadian for Walleye) and see what we like better.  I will report the results later.
Today marks the end of our third week of living aboard.  It is all good, but we are looking forward to a week at Fireside Inn near Presque Isle, with family and friends.
D&L



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