June 28th 2019
Our last day at anchor here in our beautiful corner of the world. The sun was back again, making the day even better than it already was. In the warm morning sun we gave the cockpit a good scrub which was long overdue. Cleaning a boat is always more fun when it’s warm and sunny.
This is the 7th day that we are anchored here. We’ve never anchored for such a long stretch of time, simply because we have never been able to do that. Before we had the solar panels we could stay at anchor for a maximum of 2 nights. Then we had to hurry back to the marina because we were out of power. The fridge would stop working, but that is of course less dramatic than when your engine won’t start because of depleted batteries.
But the solar panels work like a charm, especially when we move them around following the trajectory of the sun. The batteries are full every day (provided there’s at least a bit of sunshine) and the panels generate enough power to run all the 12 volt equipment like the fridge, the anchor light at night and all the lights in the boat, charge 2 phones, 2 iPads, a handheld VHF and a computer every day. We can also run the alternator, which transforms the 12 volt output of the batteries to 220 volt, and with that we can charge another computer, the batteries of 3 cameras and power a rice cooker. Even on a cloudy day like last Wednesday the battery doesn’t deplete more than 87% of its capacity. So we are very happy with this set-up.
If you buy solar panels to get cheaper energy it’s hardly worth the investment. It takes a long time before the investment has paid itself back. But from our perspective every day at anchor is a day less in a marina, which on average costs €20 a day. In this calculation it doesn’t take long for the investment to pay itself back. But what’s more important, to be off grid and the increased self sufficiency gives us so much more freedom and mobility. That is truly priceless.
Next on our wish list is a water maker. Before our time at anchor was limited by our battery life. Now the only limit is set by the capacity of our water tank. If we can generate fresh drinking water ourselves, we would be truly self-sufficient.
Speaking of which, we’re running low on water, so we have to leave. When we checked this morning there was still about 30 litres in the tank. Probably we can stretch our supply till tomorrow evening, since we’ll be sailing all day tomorrow. That means that with the solar panels and our current water capacity we can stay away from shore for about 7 to 8 days, which is great!
Dusk has fallen now, time to go inside. Early start tomorrow. It truly was a glorious day.