Preparation - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 48

A Real Life Example
Our sloop is probably a “low energy” boat by modern standards. We consume less than
700Wh per day at anchor without restricting ourselves. We recover this consumption
through a combination of solar panels and a convertible wind/tow generator. Our total solar
capacity is about 150W rated power output from four panels. Of these four, two are per-
manently mounted above the dodger. The other two are movable around the deck so that
we can keep them free of obstructions and angled towards the sun as the boat swings at an-
chor. Waterproof sockets at the bow and stern allow us to plug in these two mobile panels
where we need them. This configuration allows us to fold back our bimini at night to enjoy
a starry sky and also avoids the weight of a permanent stern arch aloft. For us, it's an ideal
solution.
Underway, the effectiveness of both solar panels and wind generators is greatly reduced.
Sails will often shade the solar panels while apparent wind speeds on trade wind routes are
too low to drive significant wind-powered output. That's when we convert our Aquair
wind/tow generator to its tow mode. It's the perfect alternative for us on passages. The tow
generator provides in excess of 1kWh per day at our typical cruising speed (5kn on aver-
age), plenty to cover our modest power requirements underway. At anchor, we convert the
unit to wind mode and hoist it on the inner forestay. We have considered installing a per-
manently mounted wind generator on a stern post but eventually decided against it to avoid
weight aloft as well as the expense. Now that our young son can do the conversion from
tow to wind mode and back, we don't mind the extra effort.
To pick up the “follow the sun” theme, Figure 4 shows our solar journey over the course of
two and a half years. Starting from Portland, Maine in September of 2011, we sailed down
the US East Coast to Charleston, South Carolina, and then went offshore to Panama, with
stopovers in the eastern Bahamas and Jamaica. In 2012 we followed the Coconut Milk Run
via the Galapagos, French Polynesia, the northern Cook Islands, Niue, and Tonga. We
spent the South Pacific cyclone season in New Zealand at about 35° South. Our second sea-
son in the South Pacific had us visit Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia before dropping out
of the tropics again in November 2013 to spend the southern summer on Australia's east
coast.