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Unrelated to engine selection, but so yourself a favor and buy a bimini top for your dingy. You can get them for about $100 off the internet. I've been cruising the Bahamas for the last 30+ years and it's one of the best things I've bought.

Lifting the dingy and engine separately will be a PITA. There are many times you will want to move short distances and you may plan to just tow the dingy. From experience, light dingies don't tow very well as they can fly in wind over about 20kts - think quick thunderstorms. Get something you...

I had Makrolon that started craze cracking at 3 years and by 5 years had to be replaced. I've read other reviews that said it was good as new after 12 years. I live in South Florida and the boat is parked facing east. I did find one other complaint that mentioned having similar problems in...

Just curious on why you wouldn't just add an inverter and go with an apartment size refrigerator that fits your dimensions. I did that years ago when I had nothing but trouble with my never-cold refrigerator.

They told me the leads had to go to individual batteries. It's been a long time, but don't think they explained why, just said that is the how they had to be hooked up. As I remember, the owners manual shows hooking up to individual batteries also.

2 suggestions. Get a battery charger that monitors battery temperature and be sure you understand what the definition of multiple banks means for the particular charger you purchase. I have a Promariner that says it is a 3 bank charger. But, what that means is that it will charge 3 separate...

You mentioned cruising the Bahamas. Most of the time you will be on a bank that is 15 to 20 feet deep. There are numerous sandbars and coral heads. Height from the flybridge greatly improves visibility. You can drop the curtain when it rains and stay up there. Also the enclosure keeps...

If you go OWW be aware that the bridge height indicators mark the height at the center of the arch of the bridge unlike on most the ICW where you have an additional 4 ft or so since they mark the lowest part of the bridge (at least where I live). Maybe everyone knows this, but I found out the...

Depending on your kind of boating, the southeast coast offers pretty easy access to the Bahamas - some of the best cruising for easy access in the world. Also, the lower center of the state is dominated by Lake Okeechobee with the everglades further south. Because of this the east coast...

Thanks for the replies. What got me thinking about this was from about 15 years ago where Tony Athens (very respected on boatdiesel back then) had a technique to wash your aftercooler by injecting a dawn-water mixture followed by water at WOT. The concept basically steam cleans your...

Has anyone experimented with water injection. Everything I've read indicates it's beneficial to combustion, improves fuel economy, and most importantly lowers EGT. I would think it would be relatively simple to install something for cruise only RPMs. I'm in South FL and see 800 F for long...

This is all good stuff and I thought I had a pretty good set up for my needs and then the event that started this thread. I've read everything I can over the years on 12 volt systems - probably one of the more complicated things on a boat - especially since we're only talking about 2 wires - a...

DDW - temperatures were cold for us last night. Probabyl 40 deg which means my batteries may have gotten into the mid 50s. What surprised me was 12.9 volts after sitting all night and then having 6 amp-hrs removed. Most of the charts I've seen says 12.7 - 12.8 for fully charged batteries.

Ski and others. I took voltage, amperage, and hydrometer measurements yesterday and today. The data is in the attached pdf. Basically took measurements as the boat sat for a few days with charger hooked up and all settled out. Then I shut off the charger, and disconnected the batteries from...

Ski - I'll get the voltage and post later. Baker - The exide nautilus batteries are inexpensive, but for the life of me I can't find data driven comparisons of batteries. The best thing I've found is that the heaviest battery is usually the best. The Nautilus comes in the middle of the group...

I think FF is on to something. The batteries are side by side - probably touching. I may be able to get a little gap between them. They are in the engine room. I live in south Florida so engine room temperatures are high in the summer - probably 110 when running and 120 at rest. This event...

I'm pretty familiar with the Ft. Pierce to Palm Beach area. They may not be designated on the charts, but lots of anchorages in that area.

I went away from 8Ds years ago. Couldn't handle the weight and paralleled group 31's get you the same capacity in the same space. Group 31 deep cycle LAs are hard to beat price per amp-hr. Thought I had the maintenance handled with the watering system, but thinking OldDan is right. Also this...

Thanks for the replies. I have some investigating to do. Once I eliminate the inverter/charger as the cause, I'll probably replace all batteries with AGM. I've got 3 house, 2 start, and one gen battery - all LA. For now I've replaced the cooked one and checked both the others with hydometer...

My house battery bank consists of 3 group 31 deep cycle exide nautilus lead acid batteries paralleled together with the positive to the boat on one end of the bank and the negative on the other. I also have a watering system that I can plug in a hose to water the batteries without having to...

Fully charge you batteries - should be 12.82v for 12v batteries. Put a load on them and measure the amp drain. Time it for a 4 hrs. This will give you the amt of amp hrs that you have removed from the batteries. Then measure the voltage and compare to the state of charge chart. Example - you...

If you can keep your income under about $65K a year, a couple will qualify for a considerable subsidy for your medical insurance if acquired through the Marketplace (Obamacare).

I haven't read all the posts so apologize if this was all ready mentioned. Your biggest problem may be finding a marina that allows live aboards.