What Is Needed ? ? ?

[S/V Mother Ocean]

I can retire with a state pension any day I want. The wife has 5 years left to get her Federal Goverment pension. We had set up a time line for that period in the future to take off. We are pretty much on track for that. She was in an accident at work and now it looks like she will be either medicaly retired or she will be offered a "Early Out",around the first of the year. This has speeded up the time line. We are now looking at taking off after hurricane season ' 09. This is on a 1994 Lagoon 37. We bought it out of the second teir charter fleet in the BVI.

What is the minimun?

What do we need to buy and what not to buy?

We are thinking about repowering with new engines. That isnt a must. The engines work good NOW. Do we want to mess with fixing them down south?

Here is some of my wish list.

Watermaker?

Genstet?

solar panels?
I already have an air marine wind generator. Would like a second one, different brand.

A radar arch/dingy davit? To install those wind gen's on. Haul up the dink. Now it's a 10' rowing power pram/dink.
An outboard for the dink? Thinking about arch and hard bimini

Hard bimini? I would like to be able to walk on it to deal with the sail handling, and a home for thoses solar panels. Also to be more weather protected, side curtians, ECT...

Frezzer? We now have a water cooled cold machine refridg. The frezzer was a compressor driven cold plate thingy. The compressor is gone, all the rest is still there. I would **** can that and go with an electric one and just generate the power for it. from above methods.

Got a garmin chart plotter, and all kinds of computer software chatrplotter and charts of the world. 2 lap tops, an old one and a new weather proof Dell Latitude, Chart table? Chart storage?

Bigger anchor? I think mine is average for boat size, Delta 33 . I would like to get a "Manson" type of anchor in the 70 - 80 lbs range. I've got a fortress FX 55 to add. I've got a 60 lb CQR in storage, that I'd like to get rid of. I also have a "Luke" Type of anchor. Heavey as hell, around 80 - 90 lbs. should I take it as a storm anchor? With all this I have a Tigress elect windless to pull it up.

Got an I pod and putting all my CDs on it now. Have a Magnavox 15" LCD TV, It is AC powered, But converts that into 12v DC via a power brick in the cord that plugs into a jack in the back. So I plan to hard wire it in. DVD player? My stero has a jack to plug one in. Satalite dish?

Heat? we have none. I was thinking about those hot water coils things that has a fan blowing across them.
http://www.heatercraft.com/images/catalog/index.html
We now have a 6 gallon water heater, I have a second one in storage that was going to put a DC powered heating element in for Hot water while at anchor with out running the engine for the heat exchanger,could also be plumbed in for the cabin heater too.
Propane cabin heater? I don't want to do a diesel heater inside, but might do an Espar type of heater.

Air conditioning? Central unit, one big one or two small ones? reverse cycle, for heat too? AC or DC powered? We have two window units thru the hatches with ply wood deflectors. It works, but looks like ****, and would not work anywhere else except tied to the dock.

We just got a new force 10 3 burner propane stove/oven.
What kind of cylinder?
I have two 10 pounders for the stove in a locker, and two of the tall ones for the grill bunge corded to the rail beside the grill. I was thinking about those fiberglass tanks, but then I would have to modify the locker, or turn another cockpit locker in to a locker for them.

Fuel tankage? I've got a 30 gal tank it runs one engine for 44 hours at cruising speed. I have 120 gallons of water tankage. I can use the space where one of the aft tanks is to convert it ti a fuel tank. Water or Fuel?

Cloths waher/dryer? or a 5 gal bucket and a plunger?

New windows, the old Plexiglass is cracked and leaks bad. I want to replace it with a solid sheet of Lexan instead of the three pieces style that is on it now.

Bilge pump GPH?

Where do you keep ypur battery bank? What kind of & how many batteries? Daily amp hours used? I now have 4 golf cart batteries period. Two in each engine compartment used as both house and starting banks. I want to get two group 27 for starting batteries, Then put a bank of house batteries in the compartment under the cockpit with acess thru the opening in the port head. There use to be a water tank here. The weight of the battery bank is about the same as the full water tank.

Main Cabin Table? We dont have one at all. It wasnt here when we bought the boat. It was a charter boat in the BVI & ST Kitts; we were told that thetable was removed to increase the cabin space and down there you ate outside. Replace it or not? What kind.? It is kinda nice to have the main cabin opened up, so we havent been in a hurry to replace it. When the weather is bad,It is a pain to eat with th plate of food sitting on your lap tho. We have thought about getting some of those wodden "TV Dinner" tray stands that fold up when not in use. We like the open space so any table would have to be able to fold away or be converted to a "coffe table" size/height.


What did you (Those that are out there doing it) think you needed and found out you didn't, and found out that you needed, and didn't start out with?

Boat is ragged out on the inside and needs cosmetic work done. Before we go or while we are out there?

You have to understand that once we quit our jobs, it isnt any going back to a nice big pay check every two weeks. So all major purchases need to be funded before we quit.

Thoughts, suggestions?


Where do you put your stuff? IE.. house batteries (and what kind), genset, refridge compressors? These are all add on, so the space will have to come from something else.

Thank You
Dan

[AnchorageGuy]

From Our web site

Voyages of Sea Trek: 03. Wadaya Need To Go Cruising?

Voyages of Sea Trek: 06. Preparations For Cruising

Voyages of Sea Trek: 27. Cruising On A working Class Budget

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