tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post302562430923774843..comments2024-03-28T01:37:16.911-04:00Comments on Our Odyssey: ICW stopoverLouisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06306854459459257368noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-52126369254501436892013-12-06T08:54:06.158-05:002013-12-06T08:54:06.158-05:00I'm not sure a picture of the end result would...I'm not sure a picture of the end result would be revealing... loaded saddlebags look just like empty ones. But it might help to know that not all fits in the saddlebags, and we have a method that works for us. In this case, the breakdown went like this:<br /><br />- Cat litter, box wine, gallon of oil, and a few smaller items in a large cloth shopping bag that goes on the scooter floorboard, with the handles looped over the coathook on the fairing. This keeps the heavy stuff down low and on something that can support the weight. It means I ride with my feet on the fold-out passenger pegs instead of on the floorboard.<br /><br />- Paper goods, so three Kleenex three-packs (nine full-size boxes in total) and the two-pack of paper towels, stacked inside a large lawn-and-leaf type garbage sack and then strapped to the passenger seat with a bungee net.<br /><br />- Coffee, canned nuts, and other similar items in the trunk, with the pumpkin pie laid across the top. The hard-topped trunk is better for anything that you don't want crushed, like the pie.<br /><br />- Produce in one saddlebag main compartment, and bags of nuts, croutons, etc. in the other, above the bottle of wine lying on its side.<br /><br />- Pork ribs in one outer compartment, and miscellaneous small item in the other.<br /><br />If I expected even more to haul back, I would also have worn one of our larger backpacks. We also have a large duffle that can be strapped to the back seat if needed, but the plastic bag was fine for the lightweight paper goods.<br /><br />If we have a *really* long grocery list, then we take both scooters, and we can fit nearly twice as much (we only have one pair of saddlebags, though).<br />Seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17930398671280529448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-36137884586053737852013-12-03T13:52:05.677-05:002013-12-03T13:52:05.677-05:00You should have taken a picture of the scooter loa...You should have taken a picture of the scooter load leaving WalMart. I still can't picture how you got ALL that into your saddlebags.mobileerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17469546242145358291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-42987109027608608972013-12-03T08:13:11.221-05:002013-12-03T08:13:11.221-05:00John, we ran the generator an average of six hours...John, we ran the generator an average of six hours a day in Wrightsville Beach. That's high for us; in temperate climes with good batteries, we should be able to get that down to less than two hours per day. Two things are working against that right now -- battery problems and very cold temperatures.<br /><br />I've already written about the batteries several times. Out of six batteries available to run house loads, only one of them is any good. They will all be replaced in Florida (where a set of batteries will cost around $1,000 less than elsewhere). I also have a new inverter and alternator waiting in the wings to be installed when I get the time to re-wire the bank from 12 to 24 volts. As it stands right now, the current batteries barely last the night running the basic systems on the boat (fridge, anchor light, chartplotter, bilge pumps, etc.).<br /><br />The other factor has been the cold. Even with a reasonable amount of insulation, a steel and aluminum boat loses a lot of heat. It's been in the 30s overnight and the 40s or 50s in the daytime. All our heat is reverse-cycle, so until I get around to putting in a diesel/hydronic system, the genny needs to run to make heat. We'll run the heaters for maybe an hour, then shut down until we're cold again, maybe two hours.<br /><br />Your math is also off. Our 16kW generator uses about a gallon an hour at half load Beyond that, the cost of an hour of run time goes far beyond just the cost of diesel. I have a spreadsheet (carried forward from <i>Odyssey</i>) that figures hourly run cost based on current diesel price along with engine oil, air/fuel/oil filters, coolant, impellers, and all the other myriad maintenance items that are serviced on a schedule of anywhere from once every 200 to once every 1,000 hours. At the current average cost of marine diesel (well over $4 per gallon, BTW), it costs us around $5 per hour to run the genny.<br /><br />While $25-$30 per day sounds high, bear in mind that we've never seen a marina charge less than a buck a foot, and we've paid as much as $2.50 a foot. Seldom do these rates even include electricity, which is typically an extra $5-$15 per day. That means we can't dock our 52' boat for less than $52 per night, and we've paid as much as $150 per night for the privilege. At that price we could run the genny 24/7 and be ahead...<br /><br />BTW, none of this includes the cost of using the batteries. I did a long write-up (<a href="http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/07/about-those-batteries.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>) on that cost, which at the time ran to about $0.25 per kWh, or twice what grid power costs. Batteries have gone up since then, so the number is higher now. I did not figure that into my "$25 per day" guesstimate because these batteries are already toast, and were nearly so when we got the boat.<br /><br />Seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17930398671280529448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-67524736987919587852013-12-03T04:47:32.702-05:002013-12-03T04:47:32.702-05:00$25-$30/day generator cost for anchoring out sound...$25-$30/day generator cost for anchoring out sounds high to me. How much do you run your generator, in a typical 24-hour period, while anchoring out? Assuming I did my math correctly, at 1/2 gal/hour and $4/gallon that's about 12 hours/day generator time. Are cold outside temps the primary factor behind the need to run the generator 12 +/- hours a day?<br /><br />John Ingalls<br />Fort Smith, Arkansas<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com