Docked in Halifax Harbor Marina and waiting on Tim a.k.a Maca, I walked the docks and found SV Cool Change which had some interesting additions to the exterior.

I first noticed a vertical axis wind generator. Google seems to think it’s something called a “lantern style” and can be purchased from Chinese distributors. Heck, you can find them on Amazon too.

Next I noticed that there were a total of eight, 20lb (size of your gas grill’s bottle at home) LPG tanks (4 on each side). 160lbs is a lot of propane! For those unfamiliar with sailboats: A few progressive sailors use propane for their dingy outboard.

More common is the use of propane for sailboat stove/ovens. Electric stoves use too much power to be run off an battery/inverter and require a diesel generator which many smaller sailboats either don’t have or want depleting their auxiliary engine’s diesel reserve. I have even spoken with southern sailors who have gone to the extreme of using a solar oven.

When I built MV Simple Life, I chose to outfit with an electric stove over propane.

I hate to think about propane leaks on a boat. I also hate going ashore to find a propane refilling station. MV Simple Life has a 9KW Northern Lights generator and 440 gallons of diesel so why not just start the genset when you want to use the oven and never spend time tanking an Uber to somewhere ashore to refill a propane tank.

There are many Chinese systems that can be commonly found on US cruising boats, chinese-diesel-fired-forced-hot-air-heaters is a common one as are the cheap mopeds and much more portable kick scooters that you see everywhere.

Halifax Harbor Marina had given me some tourist maps when I arrived. Lots to do and see…

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Tim arrived and we set out south down the ICW. We passed many interesting sights that first day.

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As the sun sunk low we prepared to anchor in Mosquito Lagoon that first night.

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Our day’s journey looked something like this.