The advantages of those cold travel days

Vero beach ~ My fans have wondered about my daily posts - nice to know there are a few of you out there reading. While we sit still in Vero waiting to go further south after the first of the year I'll keep posting and let you in on more of our life aboard.

We live on battery power – we do have a fresh water pump, we have an inverter that I can run the computer off and charge the cell phone BUT… now that we are sitting on the mooring the way to recharge the battery is to run the diesel engine for several hours every few days. Conservation is the key.
When we were travelling each day our batteries were fully charged by evening and we could run our lights and our computer. Now we live in the dark – actually we have a nice oil lamp and Don installed an LED overhead light that takes very little power. Our refrigerator uses the most power and the difference overnight of the battery drain from a 48 degree night ( last night ) and one that is 65 0r 75 is big. Conservation is the key. We open the fridge only when we need something , we try to keep things in the exact same spot so we don’t waste time with the top open while looking. We buy bags of ice to supplement.
Our head (bathroom) has a holding tank – only about 15 gallons. Now that we are tied to other boats it’s more difficult to get to the dock to get pumped out so we try not to use it. Conservation is the key. ! :) - Actually when we get up in the morning we try to get to shore to use the bathroom. Believe me – it’s really one of the most fun parts of the trip.