14:42.44N 49:51.40W

Monday 14^th January 2013. Day 16

It is day 16 and we are still in the Doldrums and expect to remain in the Doldrums for another 24 to 48 hours. What does that mean?  The Doldrums is the name sailors have given to areas of no wind or very low winds. In practise we have  very variable low wind in both strength and direction. The wind is 4 to 6 knots and we can make 2.5 knots, about a third of our average speed. Capisce has a Volvo Penta 50 hp diesel engine. At our cruising speed of 6 knots we use 4 litres of diesel per hour. We left Tenerife with 420 litres of fuel, 320 in the main tanks and a further 100 in plastic jerry cans on the deck. We have 100 litres , 25 hours or 150 miles of fuel left. We do not know exactly how long the Doldrums will last but expecting another two days of light winds. The strategy that I have adopted is to sail as best we can during the day and to use the engine in the hours of darkness. Jane spends a lot of time staring at the sky, she says that she is studying the clouds. She can see trade wind clouds a head, she is usually right. Fingers crossed that the Trade winds are returning. The crew are making the best of it . Ian and Claire are sun bathing on the fore deck as I am writing this blog.

For the last few years since this voyage was in the planning I have taken every opportunity to talk to long distance cruisers and circumnavigators when the opportunity has presented itself. A couple of years ago in Greece I had a chance quayside meeting with a guy called Mike who was on the last leg of a circumnavigation. Later that evening I was relaying part of the conversation to Jane. Mike says that I will become obsessed with power, she merely shrugged her shoulders and said “no change there then” I did not fully understand what Mike had meant at the time, I do now.

Nine months ago Capisce was Mediterranean holiday cruiser, much loved and well maintained by her previous owner for fourteen years , Geoff Unsworth who finally swallowed the anchor in favour of golf earlier this year. We have converted Capisce from a Mediterranean cruiser to a Blue water passage maker by investing in equipment. This kit falls into the categories of navigation, communications and power storage and generation. A modern cruiser consumes a great deal of power mainly electrical on everything from running the fridge to the autohelm. This usage is normally measured in Amp hours (Ah). We use 150 Ah per day. Where do we get all that from? For those of our followers interested in the technical stuff. For the rest I’ll say Goodbye now.

There are six different was that we get electrical power on Capisce. Electricity  comes in the form of 240 volt power and 12 volt power. We store our power in four 125 Ah batteries, our systems are 12 volt

1. We have 240 volt shore power when we are in a marina and connected to the power supply on the pontoon. This gives 240 volts through an electrical ring main just like at  home. The 240v also charges our batteries through a battery charger and enable our 12 volt systems to function.

At sea.....

2. Introducing Henry Honda: Henry is a 1200 w petrol generator who lives in the portside rear lazerette (locker) He acts like shore power and does all of the above. He can provide 35 Ah    (35 amps per hour). Henry has been used for about ten hours on the journey so far.
3. We have the engine which like the engine in your car has an alternator which can also provide about 40 Amps at 12 volts. We have had plenty of power in the last few days as we have motored rather a lot.
4. “Windy Miller is the name given to the Rutland 513 wind generator which sits on top of a 2.5 meter pole at the aft of the boat.
5. The flexible durable solar panels which sit on top of the bimini are the latest addition to the “team power” and have not been christened yet.
6. Most of the above are common place on cruising yacht. Our final team member is a little bit more unusual. Introducing “Mr Toad” one of our star players. He is an Ampair towed generator and likes mainly in the water. He consists of a 6 inch diameter propeller on a meter long shaft which is towed along on a thirty meter rope behind the boat. It in turn turns a small generator. When he is on form he can provide us with 6Ah.

All this is monitored and controlled with a series of spread sheets n the help of Victor Victron our battery monitoring system. He provde the information to be able to do a kind of Power cash flow.

Me............ Obsessed with power....................

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From Tony (Skipper)