Sunday, October 3, 2010

Lake Powell Postscript

Thus ends this journal of Pat and Patty's (and Baxter's) Lake Powell vacation on the C-Dory 25 Cruiser Daydream!

Due to the way Blogger works, if you are just coming on to this blog, this is the post you will see first.

Since I was not able to post each day as I wrote it, multiple days have been batch posted as our internet connection allowed. Some of the posts are under the September archive and the rest of them are under October.

If you are a glutton for punishment, open the September archive and start down at the bottom with Day 1. If you would like to read the most interesting days with the most interesting photos, I would recommend Day 5, Bullfrog Bay to Slick Rock Canyon, Day 6, Smith Fork Canyon to Bullfrog Bay, Day 7, Bullfrog Bay to Slick Rock Canyon, Day 8, Slick Rock Canyon to the Rincon, Day 9, The Rincon to Oak Canyon, Day 10, Oak Canyon, Day 12, Oak Canyon to Iceberg Canyon, and Day 13, Iceberg Canyon.

Our Lake Powell vacation is over for this year, it was wonderful, and we have no doubt we will return to Lake Powell yet again next year. The drive was just over 1,100 miles each direction, and the Titan averaged 8.3 miles per gallon towing Daydream.

On the lake Daydream used 57 gallons of gas over 176 miles, averaging almost exactly 3.0 miles per gallon. Our average cruise speed was about 7.5 knots (8.6 miles per hour). If we had been willing to slow down a knot, our economy would have been significantly better, but cruise speed and economy are always a compromise. Our Navman fuel flow meter was significantly off, as it indicated we had used only 44 gallons. Apparently we need to re-calibrate this puppy.

We got the boat mostly unloaded last night, and today is our day to clean it – there is plenty to do in that regard! I need to take the kayaks and the kayak rack off, and I think I will take the 15 watt solar panel off as well – I want to replace it with two 30 watt panels for a total of 60 watts, which should be able to keep up with the load on the house battery. The 15 watt solar panel for the Airhead fan worked perfectly for its intended purpose however.

We didn’t miss the Wallas (a diesel stove / cabin heater for those not familiar). We cooked on a little Gasone portable butane stove that we stowed under the galley each evening, and it performed wonderfully. When we needed to take the chill off the cabin in the mornings, which we did a couple of times, our little propane-fired Mr. Heater Buddy did a great job. But for extended cruising in cold climates, we definitely need a more robust cabin heater. The solution seems to be to sell the Wallas, which is back from Scan Marine with a clean bill of health, and use the money to purchase an Espar forced air diesel furnace.

We had a couple of issues on the boat. The Airhead, well, the odor was uncharacteristically embarrassing for much of the time, with a very strong ammonia odor that made Patty’s eyes burn. We had not experienced this before during the five years we have owned it. I think I fixed it. I had blocked a hole that was apparently the air inlet, and the process probably went anaerobic, causing the ammonia odor. When I removed the plug, the ammonia odor quickly went away. Unfortunately I did not figure that out until our vacation was nearly over!

Another big issue is that we did not have enough 12 volt power in the house battery to use our fridge. We had to use the cooler with block ice exclusively for anything we needed to keep cool. I am not sure if this is the cheap Walmart deep cycle marine battery (two prior ones have failed and Walmart replaced them both, don't want a fourth) or if we have something drawing power in the boat that we are not aware of. The voltage drop overnight with no apparently load is much greater than it should be. Either way, we need to figure this out so we will have adequate power. I plan on buying two new NAPA deep cycle marine batteries. If new batteries don't solve the problem, I guess I will check out the boat circuits, one by one, with my little multimeter. Also, I think beefier solar panels will help keep the house battery up for extended periods at anchor.

Little issues, the noodles on the boat-top rack don't stay in place when I put the kayaks up, and the noodles on the boarding ladder split.

All in all, though, this vacation was everything we hoped it would be and more!

OVER AND OUT

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