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Chula - Chula Log 06 - Only use what you need



Over the last winter during our long hours of our refit I had spent many
an hour listening to podcasts from Fully Charged. I suppose having a
plug-in hybrid car was the stimulus but we have also always had the
interest in doing what we can with Chula to be as green as we can. The
podcast show talks about everything from electric cars to solar
charging, generation and green systems.

On the way down to Las Palmas I met a really interesting couple off a
boat from who said to me the three most important things on a green boat
were "1: only use what you need", "2: only use what you need" and I'm
sure you can guess what the third item was.

Peter was the first to sail around the globe fossil free on a modest
purpose built boat with a number of simple solutions to keep as green as
possible. Have a look at www.fossilfreearoundtheworld.org

Initially I took Peter's motto of "only use what you need" with a pinch
of salt as I thought we already do that. After two weeks at sea I feel
we are done just that. Over winter we added to our water and fuel
tankage on Chula and carry around 600L of fresh water in three tanks and
500L of diesel in two tanks. So far we have used around 300L of water
and 120L of diesel. The best thing I feel that we are doing to reduce
our water consumption is the salt water rinse which I luckily only just
fixed when we were in Las Palmas. We save so much washing up water this
way and only use what we need which is very little. We also splash out
at and have the proper seaman's wash on deck with a quarter bucket of
fresh water per person. Very refreshing!

We also keep our electrical requirements low on Chula. We have two small
solar panels and it was on our list to extend our renewables but with
the deck rebuild and new engine which we did last winter in our refit
the renewables didn't get done. Jo has always done the calculatiotions
and reassured me that our power requirements were low and the 160w solar
and 175ah alternator on the engine would be sufficient methods of
charge. Sailing across the Atlantic has been a good test for us. We have
run the engine most days for at least an hour to charge and  in the two
weeks we have motored over night once and three hours on afternoon.

We also had a Hydrovane fitted for us in Las Palmas. We were a bit
reluctant as we were so busy and we don't normally commission people to
do work on Chula as we have had bad experiences in the past. The
Hydrovane has been brilliant though and I can get our draw down to 2amps
or 3.5 when the fridge is running so for the autohelm that is another
load off the batteries.

I am currently sat in the cockpit and we are doing 7-10 knots with the
cruising chute up in 16-20 knots of wind. This is the first time we have
flown it above 17knots of wind but we had to do something to change the
motion on the boat. I would say the three best things we have done for
the trip so far:
1. Fix the salt water foot pump
2. Buy a cruising chute
3. Fit a Hydrovane

We did consider fitting a water maker but time didn't allow. I am also
glad at the moment that we didn't because it is more to go wrong. We are
of the thinking "keep it simple get it right". Only 475nm to go but it
will be interesting to see how much water we come in with.

----- written by Joe



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