Questions about going ashore while cruising

[pbmaise]

The upper limit of time ashore is usually dictated by how often and fresh the bottom paint is on the vessel. Most cruising sailors perform, or at least supervise, the cleaning of the hull themselves.

I have hired crew to perform the cleaning before for an extended absence and usually came back to find the hull cleaning to be totally inadequate.

Vessels in a marina frequently run fridge and even AC on their vessel when away because they are connected to shore power.

Larger vessels may have enough solar to run fridge and will cycle the fridge off at night. I know someone that built an automatic switch that didn't turn the fridge on until the solar power was strong enough.

And believe it or not, many people can survive fine without a fridge and simply don't use one. Alternately, some use handy coolers that keep ice cold for two days and buy ice from shore.

Keeping an entire quarter side of beef in the freezer of a sailboat is not recommended.

[SailMoonShadow]

YouTube has been mentioned for research purposes so might I suggest taking a look at the "Free Range Sailing" channel. This channel documents the circumnavigation of Australia by Troy and Pasquale in a 30' boat - a little smaller than your protagonists but the principles will be exactly the same.

[colinalleck]

As you live in Australia I would suggest you seek out a lady called Jill Knight for an interview.

She is a well-known single-handed sailor who is a live aboard and has written many sailing and cruising books.

Good luck

Try goole - Jill Knight and SV Cooee

[Catalinagal]

As a sailing writer, magazine editor, media professional and liveaboard sailor (recently travelled SA to FNQ and return) I really do suggest that you write your story and have it vetted by someone like myself before submitting. It may not be just the points you mention about going ashore that will undermine the legitimacy of your story. If you have any questions, please reach out via my SV Vellamo Facebook page or SailVellamo instagram.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by bkwdayton

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.

A question hit me the other day, once I learned that, yes, you can go ashore for multiple days.

When you go ashore for multiple days, or I suppose even for a few hours, what happens to your refrigerator and freezer?

What keeps the refrigerator and freezer going?

Most live aboard sailboats have enough battery capacity to run a fridge and/or freezer for several days or a week without running the batteries down to a dangerous level. Solar panels are used for passive charging and even a relatively small size will offset the fridge/freezer demand.

Note that it’s not only the fridge and freezer that keep running when a boat is at anchor or at a mooring. Typically there will also be an anchor light (not required when on a mooring, but advisable if it is an isolated mooring) and active bilge pumps (not running unless their float switches lift due to rising water levels). We also keep our AIS transmitter and network router (if in an area where we can receive mobile service) powered on when anchored - the first to make our boat more visible and the second to remotely monitor a number of boat systems, including power.