I got back from my summer trip but due to weather and crew problems we only
got as far as Queen Charlotte Straits.

It was a great trip and I have no regrets.. I don't regret any time I spend
aboard my boat.

Here are some observations and lessons learned.

Total trip= 793 nautical miles. (from GPS track)
Fuel used= 66 gal.
Eng. Hrs. = 165 hrs. (from log, engine meter was unreliable.)
Motor/Sail % = 95%
Water used (crew of 2) = 160 gal.
Trip duration = 28 days
Days at dock (Comox, BC) = 2

Comment on Redundancy of Equipment:
Prior to leaving and realizing the my Aries is worthless while motorsailing,
due to prop turbulence on vane servo oar. I upgraded my ole reliable AH3000
AP control to a ST5000 (mfg refurbished) control on an Alpha heavy duty
linear drive. I retained the wiring and mounting plugs for the old AH3000
and linear drive. During Sea Trials to calibrate the ST5000, the control
failed and would constantly trip the 15amp breaker (even with the drive
disconnected). I was unsure if the little AH3000 would survive the power
demands of the Alpha drive, but I insalled it with a 5 amp circuit breaker
between the drive and the control head. This worked fine and to my
knowledge, the breaker never tripped/reset. The control head never
complained and this Alpa Drive (looks like a domestic gate opener) handled
the very have tiller load in all conditions. (My Ingrid is close to 14 tons
with a stern mounted rudder and 6ft tiller.) I'm still planning to upgrade
my course/computer to get some of the AP interface features but now
considering a core/pack below deck computer with a handheld remote control
unit. (I already have the ST600R and plug-ins in several locations, left
over from the ST5000 installation.) I doubt I will find any electric linear
drive as power full as the Alpa Drive and I don't want the complication of
the hydraulics in the open cockpit.

As mentioned in much earlier posts, I have an 800 AH battery bank (4 ea.
Trojan LH-16 batteries). I also have a 2000watt inverter/140amp charger. The
primary load on this battery bank is a small frig and a small chest freezer.
Both have had their insulation upgraded. The frig and freezer are both
Norcold, however, the frig runs directly off 12 volts. I have had problems
getting the freezer to run off 12 volts (voltage drop and constant circuit
breaker trip) and run it on 110volt AC off the inverter.. This is a was to
power since the inverter must be left in "Sense Mode" which has some
overhead. Another reason to leave the inverter in "Sense Mode" is the for
the power converter for the Laptop. In fact any charger will cause the sense
mode to activate the inverter with even higher overhead.

I have two 56 watt solar panels with worked surprisingly well in the PacNW
and a WindBugger wind generator which can produce up to 15 amps in 25 knot
of wind and averages about 5-10 amps in less wind speed.

I have been playing around with several high amp automotive alternators for
the past couple seasons. The fields of these are controlled by a Weems-Plath
AutoMac II. It can handle any size alternator as long as the field current
is more than 10 amps. I set off with a 120amp Delco installed with twin Vee
belts. I was able to get 70-90 amps from this but the front bearing on this
one failed after about 80 hrs. I then installed a 100 amp Delco and was able
to charge at about 60 amps for another 80 hrs when it died from over heating
(I suspect). For the last 30 or so miles of the trip I ran on the old OEM 35
amp alternator which was no match for the large and partially discharged
battery bank. I kept the charge current low to prevent it from failing.
Lesson learned: (1) Look for a Balmar 200+ amp alternator.
(2) forget the freezer and carry a smaller supply of
meat in the frig (not worth trouble).
(3) Listen to the warnings from others in this
forum.

Minor problems/equipment failures: (1) Engine hour meter. I'm on my 2nds one
in as many years. The current one runs fast some days and slow others. I
have been taking totals form my daily log entries.
(2) OEM engine alarm module failed (false alarms after ~30 min.)
$140 for replacement (forget that, go aftermarket for $40)
(3) Fuel transfer meter/totalizer fails (sticks) after setting
idle for several days. I took it apart several times and suspect that an
O-ring seal is swelling up to tight around the shaft. Even though I can get
it to work, I have gone to timing the run time and calculating the amount of
fuel transferred.

I made the entire trip on the fuel I had onboard, found there were not fuel
discounts or non-road tax fuel in Canada.

OH! Yah! I should have purchase and additional supply of diesel before I
left and had it available to refill my tanks on return.. I could have saved
$64. (At departure I paid $1.95.9 for died fuel and yesterday I paid $2.59.9
some for my tractor.) I'll wait a while to refuel the boat. Still have
about 25 gals left onboard.

I still have enough canned/dry goods onboard for another trip or two. Really
overstocked. I probably took more tools that most, but then for a DIYer you
never can have too many. Never found a problem I couldn't fix with what I
had. Same with engine spares.

My Volvo MD2B ran flawlessly,as I expected. (it was installed new about 200
hrs ago). The current 3 blade 17X11 prop worked great however I may have
about an inch taken out of the pitch so I can get a couple hundred more RPM.
Hull speed of 7.5 were attainable at 2000 rpm (not bad for 25 hp pushing a
full keel 14 ton boat).

Well that's enough for now. Good to be home but I do regret that I couldn't
visit the sites in Alaska. I plan to revisit Queen Charlotte Straits next
year and beyond.

"A good traveller has not fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." Lao
Tzu

Steve
s/v Good Intentions