Before every meal, Suzanne sent me to the AC electrical panel and we played with variations of equipment to get the optimum amount of electricity without tripping "the" breaker. Hot water has to wait on dinner and woe unto the person (usually me) who forgot to turn the water heater back on. Going to bed without turning on the water heater resulted in a powerful reminder in the morning, as the last dregs of heated water flowed out of the tap, usually just after lathering.
As for Ken, he adapted. He began to understand the importance of making sure everything that could be off was off, and everything that needed to be on stayed on.
FRANK MUMMERTSuzanne, out on a sail.As much as I would like to believe it was our gentle, loving guidance that achieved this miracle, it was not. Let's just say that there is nothing like losing a 10-page school assignment to a tripped breaker to bring a point home.
However, all things eventually change. Ken graduated from high school in 2006, about a year after we moved on board, and joined the US Army where he serves as a combat medic. He claims that living aboard had almost nothing to do with the decision, but I know that I provided lots of opportunities for him to practice his first aid skills as I installed, removed and re-installed boat systems. I do know that he was the only person in his boot camp class to actually expand his living space when he reported for duty. He is currently living in Baghdad and says he considers himself lucky to have all that space and electricity to himself.
LESS SPACE, MORE POWER
Suzanne and I, on the other hand, felt like the boat shrank after he left. It must have, since we seem to have no more room than we did when he was here. In fact, we lost an entire head when it was turned into a storage space for "someday projects."
That air conditioning unit that worked so miserably hard to cool the aft cabin is now one of those projects. We replaced it with a much larger unit this year, which cools much better. But the sea water pump needs to be upgraded again to keep up with the new system. It's always something.
Of course, we could no longer live on just 30 amps with the larger system, the electric hot water heater and the electric stove and oven. The electric stove was replaced with a Wallas diesel stove.
Since the stove doubles as a heater in the winter, it is useful from September to March. However, in the summertime, it can get a little oppressive, so we also added a George Foreman grill, on the recommendation of some cruising friends. I must say that George is quite the grill master and when the weather isn't right for grilling off the stern, he always steps into the ring.
George is also, unfortunately, a bit of an energy hog, taking up eight amps when he's fired up. This has led us into the biggest change to date: The addition of a second 30-amp power connection, with the additional power dedicated to cooling and heating. This second line lets us collect all of the air conditioning, heat pumps and space heaters onto a single set of breakers, and we no longer worry about the air conditioning coming on and taking out the water heater or vice versa. We still are very aware of our energy conservation and tend to balance loads against each other, but the overall quality of life has improved dramatically.
So why does a perfectly sane woman give up a house with all the power she wants to live on board a sailboat where blow drying her hair and making toast at the same time takes a strategic plan? I truly can't answer that question. All I can do is show you pictures of her at the helm off the Florida coast, and tell you how she sings when she's 20 feet up the mast checking rigging connections, and describe her wide smile when she steps on the boat from the pier. I have no idea why she wanted to live aboard. But I am really glad she did.
