Systems Aboard

Wahoo is its Own Little Village. 

We have to take care that there's fuel, power, water, communication and various forms of waste disposal available. Complicating things this village moves which means we need to navigate and get from one spot to another.

FUEL is diesel for the Yanmar Turbo charged 62 hp engine, a workhorse if there ever was one. The dinghy has a Yamaha 4 stoke 15 hp gasoline engine the preferred engine by everyone in the islands which is why we keep it locked and secure. Dinghy and outboard theft is the most frequent crime committed against cruisers. The saying "lock it or lose it" is very real. Fuel for both plus propane are all purchased ashore.

POWER is provided by our sails, a Yanmar diesel engine and a diesel Kohler generator and off the grid with our solar panels and wind generator. We get fuel along the way from marinas and fuel docks. Three solar panels were installed 2/14/14 - A great valentine present! A wind generator was added Sept 2015. House batteries collect and hold the power that is generated and we use that when neither the engine nor the generator are producing power. The freezer and refrig are the biggest draws on our energy system and we monitor them to make sure they have what they need.  The hot water heater is also a big draw Most of our lights and fans run directly off the DC current but we also have an inverter that converts the power from DC to AC allowing us to run a microwave, computer and TV.  Wahoo has two Air Conditioners that can run off of the generator but we mostly just use them when we're in a marina.

WATER is carried in our two water tanks. A total of about 150 gallons. This feeds all the faucets onboard.  We get water by using the handy dandy rain catcher Roy had made or purchased, in the same way we get fuel. The toilets just use salt water and they are connected to a holding tank which needs, well you get the idea.

Fruit & veggie hammock

COMMUNICATIONS are extremely important aboard and there are various ways that we do this, First is our VHF radio. We have one at the helm. We also have a hand held one as backup and to take off the boat when we take the dingy out snorkelling and exploring.

We also have a send and receive SSB (Single Side Band radio) aboard. It's used for talking and listening to the various cruisers nets each morning. We can also get weather info during times when we cannot get internet and cellphone service. We subscribe to a weather and trip routing service by Chris Parker. He broadcast weather and vessel specific routing information over SSB. We improved our receive signal by installing a KISS antennae in 2014.

One of our iPhones has a sim from whichever country we are in this gives us cellular data and can be used as a hotspot. The other iPhone keeps its US number and a small data plan for when all else fails. We also have a signal booster that can run up the mast when we're anchored far but not too far from land.  Whenever we have a WiFi signal we pick up email and surf the web using our onboard system. We use fa VoIP services whenever possible. Viber is our favorite as it works with our own cell phone number and can make calls or send texts for free to Viber subscribers or, for just pennies, to non-subscipers.

Dale in front of the bulkhead mounted iMac 
(not dere no mo )

Computers serve so many functions aboard Wahoo. Must be why we have so many. We carry 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, a 13" MBP. There is also a Time Capsule which acts as a modem and handles backups. There are several separate hard drive that holds lots of movies. Navigation on the macs will be covered later. The computers are another way to obtain weather information. Lots of sites to check as long as we can get online. The computers are also used for email, web surfing and budgeting just like at home.

Roy top of mast - WiFi antennae left of his head

INTERNET CONNECTION This is a constant issue. Originally our system was built around the  Ubiquiti Bullet M2HP connected to a long distance omni directional high gain 8db antennae purchased from Island Time PC. The Bullet and antennae are mounted on the top of the mast and a cable runs down through the mast and is fed under the floor board back to the sea talk module and then to the Time Capsule (modem). Power to the Time Capsule is controlled by a switch at the nav station. The Bullet is powered by POE.  Any device can control the connection between the Bullet and the onshore access point and once connected we have WiFi throughout the boat. We have connected to a strong WiFi access point as far as 3 miles away. Other times even though the access point is closer, things get in the way or its too weak and we can't connect. Onshore access points which usually offer data at a cheaper rate have been non-existent in the W Caribbean. Hopefully we will find that again when we have returned East. For now a local sim with data is our best bet.

Helm right to left
VHF, Depth, Wind, Speed, Auto Pilot topped by Chartplotter 

NAVIGATION, RADAR, DEPTH SOUNDER In 2011 we upgraded to a e7D Hybrid Touch Raymarine Chartplotter with Radar then in 2021 we upgraded again to Axiom 7+ also by Raymarine.  For those who don't know a chart plotter is a GPS integrated with your chart. This gives a great view of where you are, how fast you are going both over water and over land (think about currents). In fact it shows the current and by "talking" to the AutoPilot can adjust your heading to compensate. By charting your course using "waypoints" to mark your future positions your current trip is laid out and you clearly see your path to that next sunset. The radar is also integrated so that either as an overlay or a separate screen you can see weather, land features and nearby vessels. An AIS receiver was added in 2016. Because redundancy is good one of the iPads has GPS and a navigation program called INavics.

In addition we have a Raymarine Depth Sounder. These all "talk" to each other over Seatalk, a Raymarine protocol for its marine instruments to communicate with each other. By using a NMEA multiplexer this information can be used by other instruments. 

Raymarine Chartplotter

The iPad can easily be in the cockpit it is a great backup should the main chart plotter go bonkers. (As it did on our trip in 2012 to Belize traveling down the Mexican coast).

INavics

In general, we chart our overall course on the slightly larger screen of of the IPad . This way we can set our general schedule for the entire cruising season. This lets us know how far between ports and gives us a time schedule. We then put in lots of weather and tourist days to make the trip length more accurate. We know that you can't sail to a schedule but if you can't get from point a to point b under perfect conditions you certainly can't get there in a real life cruising time. So we adjust.