West Coast of Florida

Since our last blog, we have gone back to Marco Island and had the damage repaired from the accident at Ft. Meyer's Beach mooring field.  It was just cosmetic and the owner of Dragon's Lair gave us a check for the repairs.  Very admirable.

While we were in Marco Island, we stayed at the Esplanade Marina.  Yammy's sister, Laurie, came and stayed with Yammy while I traveled to TX, MS and Alabama.  Yammy's father and step-mom also came down and bought a condo on the island.  Beautiful high rise on the best corner of the island.  Our love for this island is contagious.

From there we traveled to Cayo Cost and the state park. Nice anchorage and walks on a natural beach.  Then to another state park in Tampa Bay, Desoto Point.  We stayed here to finish up our taxes then sailed to the St. Petersburg mooring field.  We came here to visit with my father and Nancy.  They just bought a house in Ruskin and were just 30 minutes from where we moored.  They have a gorgeous, spacious home in a gated community.

Seems like, after the winter the whole country had, everyone is looking at Florida again.  

On our fist night in St. Petersburg, Yammy and I realized we had been here once before.  Four years ago, after our cross country driving tour, we were looking for a place to spend the rest of winter.  We called a few places and nothing was available.  That is when we wound up in Myrtle Beach.  We recognized the area due to the gelato shop.  The little things you remember.

One word of advice, the Vinoy mooring field is exposed to any wind that has an E in it.  When that occurs, the waves come in and bounce off the cement walls in the harbor.  You end up in a giant bathtub getting rocked from all directions.

Also, after only a week in Tampa Bay, we have a slime on our hull that did not wash off while sailing.  First time since we painted in November.  If it doesn't come off, we may need to scrub it off.

We enjoyed our time on the west coast, but do not think we will venture north of Marco Island again.  The winds switchs from a land breeze to a shore breeze, nearly everyday.  The problem is the 2-4 hours will little or no wind during that change.  We also experienced the swarms of love bugs.  They hit as we arrived at Cayo Costa and stayed until we returned south of that location.  During one of the wind changes, our cockpit became engulfed with thousands of them.  We had to use a hose to wash them all away.  Last, but not least, is the shallows.  We have run aground 4 times in the past 2 weeks.  Once in the middle of an inlet trying to get to Sarasota.  We wound up having to skip that city all together.  We only draft 4' of water.  This brings to mind a statement, made by a friend of Sid and Bonni's, who said he gave up sailing and switched to power boating on this coast.  He said it is just too shallow.

There are areas of great sailing.  Tampa Bay being one of them.  But, the accessible anchorages are greatly limited.  For our good friend Kent, this distinction is when sailing offshore, not on the GIWW.  The only positive thing I can say about going aground, is we cleaned the barnacles off the bottom of our keels.:)

  Funky ring around the sun the day after lunar eclipse

 Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.  On this day, we found the wind to be NE on the East side and NW on the West side (after a mile of no wind).  Reminds me a lot of sailing on lake Ontario.  

 An osprey catching dinner at an anchorage at Anna Maria Island

Sailing wing and wing with the code 0 and headsail.  No poles!!!  Sometimes you have to love a wide stable platform.

 Dolphins swimming in our bow wave to welcome us back to Marco Island.

Back to our favorite sunset.  End of another day in paradise!
        







  

    

Frank caught a Cobia!

We left Marathon on March 15th after Roy's father Frank, Nancy (significant other), Rod (Roy's twin brother) and Dianne (significant other) visit.  We had a wonderful time!  Rod  arranged a fishing charter for us and guess who had the biggest catch!  That's right me,with a 30 lb Mackerel then Frank with a 15 lb Cobia.



Yes, I had the biggest catch 30 LB King Mackerel!

Roy, Frank, Nancy, Me, Diane and Rod with our catch!



Happy Hour!  Sid, Rich, Kent, Walt & Roy



Happy Hour!  Me, Anna, Jane, Pat, Bonnie & Sid.  Sid this was the girls picture!  Ok I won't go there!!!!

Sid blowing his conch at sunset!  Best Conch Blower in Boot Key!

We sailed to Shark River for the night.  We didn't see any sharks! The next day we sailed to Marco Island.  I'm in love with this island.  Everyone is so friendly and helpful not to mention how beautiful  the island is. Roy will be  traveling next week. We are going back to Marco Island,  my sister Laurie is coming down to spend the week in Marco Island.  My dad &wife surprised me and are also coming.

Sunset from our boat in Marco Islands

Right now we are in  Ft. Myers Beach mooring field.  The pictures, below, are from a 47' Catalina that decided to travel on a 30 mph wind day and also fight the incoming tide to try and pickup a mooring ball right in front of us.  The pictures show he did not make it.  His rudder got hooked on our mooring ball and we had to wait for 1.5 hrs for the tow boat to show up.  We were able to get a fender in between the two boats, but we still suffered some cosmetic damage to our port bow.  We are waiting on estimates and the owner said he would pay for the damages.  We all know mistakes happen, but when you live only 25 miles away, there was no reason for them to be traveling during the high winds.  Now we have to have repairs done, lost a fender and had to cut one of our mooring lines.  That along with having to remove our bowsprit and code 0 to make sure it didn't get damaged as well.

By the way, the tow boat couldn't do anything with the wind and tide.  Between the two boats and another volunteering couple, we came up with a plan to get him off our bow and it worked.  Just took 3 hours to make it happen.      

Answers

Since we purchased this catamaran, everyone keeps asking me when I am going to convert to electric.  The answer is never.  The reasons:

1.  Drag.  If we went with pure electric, we would need three bladed props to regen power to the engine battery bank.  As proven, the drag from 2 - two bladed props, drops our sailing speeds by 2.5 knots. Can't imagine what 2 - three bladed props would do.

2.  Weight.  We also talked about how just 400 lbs of water, makes us lose 0.5 knots of sailing speed.  The only way to run with electric engines is to make a hybrid.  Until the past few years, all of the electric cats have been hybrid.  This makes a perfect motoring cat.  You can still go with folding props and just use your generators to charge the batteries.  But, saving a few hundred pounds in engine weight is quickly offset by the weight of the batteries.  With the Valence batteries, coming down in price, this may be a viable option now.  But, as we found, you do not have high current DC generators.  Unless you can get 100 amps plus, you cannot motor at hull speed indefinitely.  This means AC generators and large chargers, or AC motors.  Technology is still lacking.

3.  Many of the new cats, and mono's, come equipped with the electric engine inline with the diesel propulsion.  This may seem like the perfect option.  Maneuvering quietly, and with so much power, silently in the harbor.  Then turn on on your engine for normal motoring.  So, now you don't save any engine weight and you still add hundreds of pounds of batteries.  Unless the hull is redesigned for this weight, it will just slow you down.

I am not against electric propulsion.  We still love the fact we did it to Yumsuch.  But it has its place.  If you are a lake or bay sailor, than go for it.  If you regularly fight tidal currents and need to make miles for a safe anchorage, then don't.   If technology ever catches up, which I doubt it will for sailboats, then I will reevaluate.  

We also had one question from Bob and Brenda.  They were wondering how we charge our battery bank on Yasmine Ann.  Good question.  They saw we went from 850 Amp hour battery bank to 138 Amp hours.

In a 24 hour period, we use about 210 amp hours.  Most of that is during the day, due to the inverter being on all day for computers.  Before the Valence battery, we used between 40-60 amp hours overnight.  With the new battery, that has been reduced to 30-50 amp hours.  Higher efficiency on refrigeration compressors due to higher voltage.  The most, we have drawn out, is 63 amp hours.  Then the sun kicked in.  The Valence battery has 10,000 discharge cycles at 50%, versus 1000 for AGM.

Yasmine Ann came with 3 - 210 watt Kyocera panels.  This past summer, we added a 350 Watt Superwind wind generator.  Last year, the solar panels would have us charged by noon and keep up all day.  The same is true for this year.  However, last year, we ran the generator everyday (30 minutes) for hot water showers.  We added the Superwind to allow a 180watt DC heating element to be added to the hot water heater.  As long as the wind is blowing, or we have the right sun angles, we can heat our water with surplus "green" energy now.  I had a custom element made that screws into the drain plug fitting.  We have the element switched separately.  Two hours, gives us warm water and 4 hours gives us hot water in our 11 gallon tank.  The wind generator also allows us to get power on the cloudy, but windy days.  The wind is always blowing in the Keys.

                                Solar Panel

                Solar Panels and Wind Generator

Batteries

As promised, I wanted to let everyone know about my new house battery.  Notice the singular?  We have removed nearly 300 lbs of 2 group D AGM batteries, totaling 850 amp hours and replaced them with a single Valence Lithium Phosphate battery, Group 27 size, 138 Amp hour and weighing only 41 lbs.  That is 250 pounds of weight out of the port hull and no battery in the engine compartment anymore.  That hull has lifted up nearly an inch out of the water.

We did this for two reasons.  One was the existing batteries were shot and needed to be replaced.  Second is the ever demanding need to reduce weight and keep Yasmine Ann sailing fast.  We have noticed a half a knot of reduced speed when our 100 gallon water tank is full.  It is located forward of the cabin house, so it digs the bows in.  We already removed 1 spare anchor from that location as well.

The Valence battery has been around for about 7 years now.  It is the only chemistry that can use the same charging systems as your lead acid based batteries and does not have the exploding problems of the other lithium configurations.  I researched them when I was looking at replacing the engine batteries in Yumsuch.  Back then, they were too expensive.  Now they are close to the cost of a large AGM bank, by someone good like Lifeline.  The difference is a 15-20 years life expectancy, versus 3-5 years.  So, if all works as stated, it will far outweigh the original cost.

After 1 month of running the battery, there are some very positive reports.

1.  The voltage has never dipped below 13.2V.  This is with up to 60 Amp hours down and loaded up to 10 amps.  This does a couple of things.  The refrigeration compressors run better and less time.  Both the refrigerator and freezer have never been colder.  Even the water pump and macerater toilets work better.  We are using less water to flush with the renewed power on the heads.  

2.  The battery recharges faster.  With a lead acid chemistry, the internal resistance increases as you get closer to your acceptance voltage.  This reduces the amount of current the battery can take.  That is why, when you are charging with solar and wind, it takes forever to get to float, if you make it at all.  With the Valence battery, it takes the full current right up to the acceptance voltage of 14.6V.  Then it drops to float.  One of the biggest problems with the AGM, and this is stated in the Lifeline datasheet, is that if you do not reach full charge at the end of each charging cycle you shorten the life of the battery and Lifeline will not warranty it.  With the battery management module, used with the Valence battery, you only have to reach full charge once per week for it to properly balance the cells within the battery.

I know I am going on too long.  Some of you like to hear these details.  But, I will quit for now.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.  I can get you in touch with my contact at Valence.

We just spent the last week anchored in Miami and are now back in Marathon.  We went for the boat show and learned a lot about new products and old ones we have been researching.

 The new green Valence battery in comparison to just one of the AGM batteries removed.

 Close-hauled at 50 degrees apparent on our way to Miami, all under code 0 and mainsail.

Sunset, downwind sailing at 160 degrees with code 0 only on the way back from Miami.  We sailed all code 0 to and from Miami.  Thank you Haarstick Sails!

    

Finally!!!!!!!! A post from Yasmine Ann!

It has been  a long time since I/we have blogged! 
We worked on Yasmine Ann from May until the end of October.  At  times I thought we never ever get her finished and cleaned up!  But we did and she looks incredible!

Here is a list of things we accomplished:

-Stripped/Varnished the inside except the master head(bathroom) and one cabin out of three. The third cabin may become our storage room.
-New cockpit cushion's
-New Turtle Floor
-New Turtle Table the goes down to cocktail table and up for a regular table.
-New Blowers for the engines
-New Code Zero
-New Helm Seat that also turns aft.
-New Sale Drives
-Bottom Paint
-New folding props
-Sail Drives serviced
-Superwind Wind Generator
-Remodeled master suite with a couch and extra storage

Things we have done since our last blog:



Rochelle & Kevin got married!

Roy is telling Kevin, you better take care of her or else, you deal with me!

Proud dad and step mom with the lovely bride!

  Myrtle Beach with the Grandkids!



Nate & I at Myrtle Beach!

Magic Kingdom with Jacob & Nate!

Our Little Silver Surfer Jacob!

Our one bedroom condo is finally done and ready for renters.

New kitchen

New Captain chairs looking at the ocean!

Ocean View!







Living Room



Bathroom

The New cockpit

Cockpit with our turtle floor





Teak table Roy build.

Rainbow leaving Vero Beach after Thanksgiving.



S/V FUI leaving Miami.  Yasmine Ann is leading today.



S/V Kismet  Wee met up with Jim & Laurie on Kismet in Miami and sailed with them and FUI to Rodriquez Key.



Sailing to Marathon.

S/V FUI leading the way.

                                            Code Zero


                                    Christmas Week!

Poppy got us!  Oh No!

Help!

Nate gets Poppy!

Jacob & Nate dunking Poppy!


Jacob loves Christmas!

Christmas with Jacob!



New Found Harbor Sunset!

Dolphin Research Center with Kent, Roy, Jane, Bonnie, Sid, Pat, Walt, and Anna.



Hi!   Come see us!



We do tricks for you!

  Sunday February 2nd we went for a sail with Rich & Anna from Snow Goose and Dave from Jolly Mon. 



Rich

Roy & Anna at the Helm!

Dave





For all of you interested in how the improvements have effected Yasmine Ann, this is my section (Roy).

You could probably tell, by previous posts, that I was not happy with the sailing characteristics of the Lagoon.  Loved the room, but it was more of a trawler.  Now, I repeat to everyone that we actually own a sailboat.  We sail into harbors and up to anchorages.  Just like the good old days.  The whole reason is the folding props.  With the two bladed fixed props, we could barely get 5 knots of of the boat.  Unless we were on a beam reach, with 25 knots blowing, it would not get out of its own way.  The slow speed also added excessive leeway when going to weather.  Now, we barely ever see speeds under 7 knots.  We regularly sail right around the 7.5-8 knot range.  Being only 12K lbs dry, it just can't handle the drag of fixed blades.  I'll never forget leaving St. Augustine, with our new props, unfurling the headsail, and seeing Yammy's face light up.  Before, this would only add 0.2 knots.  Now we had 2 knots.  The folding props have added around 2.5 knots of overall speed in all wind conditions.

Now, for light air, the Haarstick Code 0 is a blessing.  We have sailed twice now with true wind speeds around 5 knots.  In flat seas, building apparent wind to 9.4 knots, we were able to hit 5.1 knots.  There was not another sailboat out there that day actually sailing.  With the code 0 we also hit our fastest speed.  Beam reaching in 13 knots true, we hit 9.4 knots.        

I don't write this to brag.  I write it out of astonishment.  Everyone we bring sailing is amazed at how two little props can make such a difference.  Drag and weight are a catamaran's nemesis.  In the next blog I'll tell you how I shed 200 pounds of battery weight.