“What are you going to do for AC? What happens when storms come? What about water and waste?” – and the list of questions went on and on. Everyone we told about our plans to move our boat to the mooring field looked at us like we were crazy. I mean, maybe we are, but we’re not the first to live in a mooring field, and certainly won’t be the last.
We knew we’d be “roughing it” in the sense that we’d have fewer amenities than we had at the marina, and that Summer would be the true test of survival. But we were determined to experience life in the mooring field, and think of it as a test or training period to help us prep the boat for future cruising adventures. It’s best to find out what works and doesn’t work while you’re still in your hometown as opposed to a remote or unfamiliar location.
What’s a mooring ball?
For our less nautical readers, mooring means we won’t be tied up to a marina dock, instead we are tied up to a mooring ball, which is fastened into the ground underwater. We use dinghies to get to and from land. Meet Coco Rum, and Banana Rum, two new additions to our fleet, and our means of getting to and from land.
The town’s mooring field has a dinghy dock, where we lock up our dinghies and hop in our cars to go about our “regular” daily routine. Anything we need to get to and from the boat needs to fit in the dinghies including groceries, water jugs, packages, and yes, cats.
So what did we do to prepare?
Watch our video below to see for yourself!
Purchased & Installed Inverter – Since there is no shore power to provide our boat electricity, we needed an inverter that draws power from our 12V DC house batteries and converts it to 120V AC electricity for things like our refrigerator, freezer, and wall outlets.
Purchased & Installed Solar Panels – We could run the big generator for a multiple hours everyday to charge our house batteries, but a more sustainable means of living is to run on solar or wind generated power. So, we have four very large solar panels mounted on our hard top, with wires to run from the fly bridge to the salon.
Purchased Small Generator & Portable AC – Since our four marine air conditioners onboard draw too many amps for our inverter to handle, we knew we’d need an alternative solution for AC. Our main concern was the keeping the cats cool during the day. So we researched what others have done, and for now this is the best solution we could implement quickly.
Purchased & Installed New Blinds – This was partly because three of the four blinds in the salon were broken and/or missing. But we also needed new day/night blinds to help reduce the sunlight beaming in. We purchased window tint to install in the future, and sun visors which we hung in the huge front windshield, aka the cats tanning bed.
Installed New Screening – The port hole screens along the side of the boat were shot, so those needed replacing anyways, but we also replaced the big screen door to the salon with cat-proof screening. We will be relying on nice cool breezes the majority of the year, so screens are a big deal for mooring.
Purchased New Grill – Our plug-in skillet trips the breaker when we have just the inverter working, and the stove and/or microwave will not work without the generator either, so we needed another means of cooking. Luckily we like to grill!
Purchased Dinghies – We had one portabote that had a hole in the bottom, and a gifted inflatable that deflated every day. So, we decided it was wise to get a decent/reliable dinghy for us to get around. Given our different work schedules, we actually decided to get two newly used dinghies, ones that didn’t sink while at the dinghy dock all day.
Purchased New Lines – Wiffersnapper came with enough dock lines for a fleet of boats. Our SeaRay, not so much. We barely had enough lines to tie the boat to the dock, and even those had worn threads. So we purchased new lines for the mooring ball and some for the dinghies as well.
What else? I’m sure there’s more. But you get the point. We didn’t just untie the lines and hope for the best. We put a lot of thought into the “what if’s” and spent many evenings researching solutions when we weren’t on the roof or in the engine room. Still, I’m sure there are things that we missed that we will learn along the way… that’s just the nature of boatlife!
Progress report to follow…
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