08/29/2011
Electric Boat Adventures in Maine
Thanks to google for this image
It’s been a month now since I launched Eleccentricity, my electrically powered boat and perhaps primary symptom of mental illness. After all, who does stuff like this? Why can’t I just mow my lawn like normal people? Anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun cruising around and trying to figure out how far I can go on a charge. I still don’t know. I had the bright idea of setting out into the wind for a set distance and heading back, figuring that if I ran out of juice I could just blow back. I could do this multiple times until I ran out of power, thereby arriving at my range for one charge.
But I got bored, and the wind kept changing, and I started to stray off course. After all, the reason for building the boat was to experience the water and I was succumbing to the rapture. Besides, I was going back and forth and the boat was showing no sign of pooping out. So for now, the range will remain a mystery. After 5 or 6 days of light use I still got 37.5 volts, which translates to around 70% charge, so I am unsure of the range. Best estimate is about 20-25 miles.
A big beautiful fisherman's anchor!
On one of the days I decided to pull up an abandoned mooring I spotted close to shore. I knew it was abandoned because the orange ball was only visible at low tide. It sank under as the tide rose. So at low tide I tied Eleccentricity’s bow eye to the mooring and hoped it would not pull her down as the tide rose. I set about painting the interior to pass the time. Eventually I noticed the stern was lifting higher. With just a little sinking of the bow the mooring was off the bottom! Now I could wait for high tide and move the mooring close to shore until it grounded. I was hoping the spot where it hit the bottom would be visible at low tide. Next day at low tide I surveyed my treasure. A big fisherman’s anchor had become tangled with a lobster trap and both were completely colonized by marine growth. I untangled and cleaned up the anchor and put it to use as a close-to shore mooring for charging Eleccentricity’s batteries. So far the scheme has worked fine. I have about 6 hours during which the tide affords me the water depth to keep the boat off the bottom for a full charge. Next year I hope to charge using photovoltaics on a canopy.
The final entry in this story is Irene, the hurricane. I have seen lots of fizzled hurricanes in Maine, but on Saturday I was cruising about and noticed a very empty harbor at Lamoine State Park. The lobster boats were all in the parking lot. This caught my attention. There’s something quite unsettling about being one of the few boats left in the bay. Even the whale watch ship was booking it toward protected waters. My friend Chuck (the veggie farmer, find his wagon at Lamoine Corners) was anxious, and had already pulled his sailboat. He offered to pull mine, I agreed. So now Eleccentricity sits in the park’s lot, waiting Chuck’s return. Irene was powerful, even up here. We lost power for a short while; the wind howled and the rain hammered. No telling what could have happened if I had left the boat in. Thanks Chuck.
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Filed under Acadia, Lamoine, Out on the water by on Aug 29th, 2011.
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