End of December - La Cruz Anchorage in Banderas Bay Mexico
We finally did it. We finally broke down and pulled out the Honda EU2000i generator. It has been a good week of clouds and rain. A couple of nights it was real windy, the type of wind that continually tugs at the anchor snobbier and deck cleats, straining and groaning. The wind a howling and waves slapping the boat.
The lighting and rain coming down. The thunder right on top of us so you know the storm was. But there just has been so many clouds our solar cannot recover the batteries if we use them up during the day. That's what was our problem is. We were running out of water. we do not have a system to collect the rain water. We tried buckets but a big tarp with a hose in it would work. Not a big deal because we have a Spectra Watermaker 200T Deluxe Water Maker and it has a low draw. Still there is not enough sun to run the water make for say two hours and make 16 gallons of water and then get the batteries back up for nightfall. The days are short and the sun low in the sky.
So all in all a good experience. We will now need a gas can and some gas for the generator. Also we will keep it out all winter till we summer over then we will drain the gas and store it again under the bed area.
Last year at this time we were in Chamela and it also rained three days straight and we had a big storm there so it looks as though this is the summer rain season?
The lighting and rain coming down. The thunder right on top of us so you know the storm was. But there just has been so many clouds our solar cannot recover the batteries if we use them up during the day. That's what was our problem is. We were running out of water. we do not have a system to collect the rain water. We tried buckets but a big tarp with a hose in it would work. Not a big deal because we have a Spectra Watermaker 200T Deluxe Water Maker and it has a low draw. Still there is not enough sun to run the water make for say two hours and make 16 gallons of water and then get the batteries back up for nightfall. The days are short and the sun low in the sky.
We fired up the Honda EU2000ii and then let it worm up for a couple minuets. We then flipped the double pole AC switch at the nav station and then turned on the Xantrex 2000 battery charger. Then we plugged in all our electronics as they were dead or near it J We also plugged in the trickle charger for the Lifeline starting AGM battery. We could hear the generator ramp up a bit from echo mode and then we turned on the Spectra Ventura 200T Water Maker and the generator ramped up some more. We ran the generator until it ran out of gas. In this case we did not fill it all the way and am not sure how much gas we put in it. The Honda EU2000i holds .95 gal of gas. We made about two hours water (16 gal). The batteries were on float and all our electronics like out Kindle Fire and Kindle White Paper and the Acer PC along with the rest got charged up or a lot charged.
We later stole some more gas from the dingy tank and for running it that night. That night (last night) we watched a movie on our 27" LED TV using our Acer PC and Bose Soundlink Bluetooth speaker. This time we moved the Honda EU 2000i from the bow to the cockpit because of the pouring rain. We are not sure how it handles the rain. We closed up the companway doors and flipped the canvas cover over them. The it was not an issue with the noise.
By the way this is the first time the Honda EU2000i has been started since we bought it a few years ago!So all in all a good experience. We will now need a gas can and some gas for the generator. Also we will keep it out all winter till we summer over then we will drain the gas and store it again under the bed area.
Last year at this time we were in Chamela and it also rained three days straight and we had a big storm there so it looks as though this is the summer rain season?
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