20260615 - Monday - Rough night last night. The Solix got down to 8% so we started the generator at 6:10am to recharge it. Charged to 96% by 11:00am. The autopilot and chart plotter fid not work reliably last night. The autopilot did not work at all so we hand steered all night. The chart plotter kept rebooting so we would lost it at many random times. Very difficult keeping the course. Needed to rely on the old fashion compass, headlamps, and the feel of the wind to tell which way to steer many times. This morning I figured out the autopilot, chart plotter, and NEMA connection were all wired into o e terminal and there was not enough power to run them all. I separated them out, and now it appears the autopilot is working correctly, and the chart plotter works well although sometimes it gives a low voltage warning. Last night I thought we needed to buy and install a new autopilot, but that crisis has been overcome.

20260614 - Sunday - sailing all day toward Marco Island.

20260613 - Saturday - sailed all day and night toward Marco Island. Using Predict Wind to chart course. Light winds.

20260612 - Friday - left Dog River marina at 10:30am. 10:55 left Do River channel into the main channel. 2:30pm turned off the engines for the sail to Marco Island.

20260611 - Thursday - started at 7:40am at MM 9.8. Arrived Co mentioned Center free dock around d 9:30am. Dropped off Pete so he could fly home. Walked around Mobile. Visited the Cathedral and the Maritime History Museum. Left Convention Center dock at 1:00pm. 2:30 turned into Channel leading to Dog River. Arrived Dog River marina at 3:30pm. Filled up with gas, 31.4 gallons. Picked up waste filler cap from the West Marine there and installed it that evening.

20260610 - Wednesday - started at 7:45am at MM 83.5. Anchored at 5:00pm at MM 9.8 just above 12 Mile Island.

10260609 - Tuesday - started day at 8:00am at MM 150. Got to Bobby's Fish Camp at MM 219. Stayed there from 12:15 to 1:00. Very nice place. Filled up with fuel, 21.6 gallons. Coffeeville lock 1:30 - 1:45. Went under the lift span railroad bridge at 5:00pm. Had to wait about 10 minutes for a train to pass. Anchored 6:30pm at MM 83.5.

20260608- Monday - started from Kingfisher Bay Marina about 8:00am, MM 216. 9:15 cleared through Demopolous lock. Stopped for the night at 5:30 at MM 150.

20260607 - Sunday - Started 8:00 from mile marker 249. Arrived at Kingfisher Bay marina, mile marker 216, in Demopolis around 12:30pm. Filled up with gas and used their courtesy car for a Walmart trip. Will stay here tonight. Nice swimming pool.

20260606 - Saturday - Started the day at Bevil Lock at 9:00am mile marker 306. Arrived at Heflin Lock at 3:00pm. Anchored at 5:40pm at mile marker 249 by the White Cliffs of Epes. Really pretty place to anchor at a bend in the river. Every so often a train goes by on the railroad bridge right close to us. Nice day, nice breeze, its supposed to start raining late tonight. We should reach Demopolis tomorrow.

20260605 - Friday - Pulled up anchor at 8:00 and into Aberdeen Lock at 8:15am. We reached Columbus Marina about 12:15 pm where we filled up with gas. 33.5 gallons of gas. Left the marina and got underway about 1:15pm. Stopped about 5:30pm for the night about mile marker 309, just above Bevill Lock. Did a gas calculation today 1.57 gallons per hour using both engines. We motored for 21.25 hours and used 33.5 gallons. I got confirmation from both ChatGPT and West Marine that the Victron Blue Smart IP22 12V 30A is the better choice than the Noco Genius gen5 3x house battery charger. The Victron’s advantages include: Lower Power Consumption: The Victron charger boasts up to 93-94% efficiency. Because it generates very little heat, it pulls only 0.5 W of power when idle/in storage mode. In contrast, the NOCO can consume up to 220 W at full draw and consumes slightly more power just in general maintenance. Through the VictronConnect app via built-in Bluetooth, you can see exactly how many amp-hours are going into your batteries and monitor historical data on your phone. Since my 3 AGM batteries are wired in parallel, they act as one large battery bank. The Victron pushes 30A of bulk charging but can be manually throttled down via the app to 15A if your solar inverter is struggling to keep up on a cloudy day. So today I ordered a Victron to be sent to my cousin David's house in Marco Island, FL. I also ordered two foldable 400 watt solar panels from Anker. A combination of the Anker SOLIX PS400 panels and the new Victron battery charger will give me twice the solar cell generating power and less power consumption by the battery charger. A great combination! All this stuff is being sent to cousin David's house.

20260604 - Thursday - Started at 8:00am. Solix was at 61%. Cleared through 4 locks today. Rankin Lock at 8:35am, Fulton Lock at 10:15am, Wilkin Lock at 2:30pm, and Amory (Cochran) Lock at 4:15pm. We had to wait on barge traffic at Amory Lock. Pete threw our rice maker pot out with the dish water last night, so just after Fulton Lock we unhooked the dingy from the boat, motored over to the side of the waterway next to an interstate bridge, and hiked through a field, logging company operation, small subdivision, and a few roads to a close Walmart to buy a new rice maker. It was about a half hour hike each way. You do what you need to do. The solar charging system was better today. We started out at 61% and made it back to 98% by the end of the day. The Noco house battery charger is behaving much better and not drawing as much power. It reached a maintenance state with the batteries and now seems to be drawing much less power to keep the batteries topped off. We anchored at 6:30pm at mile marker 358 just upstream of the Aberdeen Lock. Discounting the Walmart trip, we motored for about 9 hours today. Nice day, it wasn't too hot, and a decent breeze.

20260603 Wednesday - Left Grand Harbor marina at 10:30am. Used both motors today. Anchored between Montgomery Lock and Rankin Lock at Mile Marker 403 at 6:30pm. Spent a lot of the morning at Grand Harbor trying to locate a replacement house battery charger. My Noco Genius Gen5 3x is having a hard time. It is probably not the right charger for my application. The batteries have a constant low draw on them from the boat DC things like refrigeration, chart plotter, auto pilot, etc. so the Noco is constantly trying to actively charge them and never goes into a maintenance mode. So, it is drawing more power than I want it to and pulling down my main Solix battery bank. I should get a Victron Blue Smart IP22 12V 30A single output. That is made more for my application. Anyway, no place around Pickwick Lake carried the Vicron brand. But, I will try to find one before I leave the states. Nice cruising today. We are now going "downhill" toward the Gulf and with the current instead of fighting it. Motoring along about 6.2 kts a lot of the time. We cleared through Whitten Lock and Montgomery Locks today. Beautiful little anchorage just before Rankin Lock. Pete threw the rice cooker pan overboard along with the dish water this evening. Not good. The rice cooker will not work without its custom pan. We use the rice cooker every evening for dinner. We will have to find a way to Walmart to pick up a new one.

20260602 - Started the day motoring at 8:00am. Solix was at 37%. Has me worried. The solar cell input is not keeping up with our battery consumption. I may need more soar cells. Arrived at Pickwick Lake lock at 12:45 and passed through lock at 1:15. Arrived at Grand Harbor marina at 3:00pm. The Solix is charged up to 65%, but we didn't run the house battery charger all day. We are staying at the transient slip for the night at Grand Harbor. Borrowed their courtesy car and went to hardware store, grocery store, and a meal. We bought 33 gallons of gas. We have been using both motors for 21.5 hours. This is 1.5 gallons of gas per hour for the both motors. We were also fighting a stiff current for most of the day, if this makes a difference. Nice night on the dock at Grand Harbor. Mateo is practicing his Hurdy Gurdy. We are charging everything back up to 100% from shore power and have topped off our water tanks. Showers all around!

20260601 - The Solix started at 53% at 7:00am. After coffee it was 51%. The NOCO Genius Gen5 3x house battery charger seems to use more power than I would expect. It always uses around 250-300 watts of power. So we ran it for a while today to top off the house batteries. It never went into maintenance mode to use less power. ChatGPT says as long as anything is drawing power from the batteries, like refrigerator, chart plotter, auto pilot, etc. it will keep using full power. So we turned if off when we were able to. At the time of this writing the Solix is at 56%.

20260601 - 8:00am start time. Averaged around 5 kts against a current. Ran both motors. Anchored about 6:00pm at mile marker 177.

20260531. Started the day at 8:00am. The Solix was down to 71%. Motored on one motor to Pebble Isle marina. Arrived 1:30pm. Filled the gas tank - 9.5 gallons for about 14 hours of motoring, mostly on one motor. From Pebble Isle onward we used both motors, working against the river current. Cleared under the railroad bridge at 2:30pm. Anchored at 6:00pm at mile marker 119. The smart battery charger for the house batteries is drawing about 300 amps. This seems excessive. The Solix was down to 71% at the end of the day.

20260530 - 9 hours. 45 miles. Mostly on one engine. Left GTB at 8:50am. We left the canal into Kentucky Lake at mile marker 25 and our average speed was 5.6 kts. At 9:45 we switched to one engine only and our average speed was 3.9 kts. At 10:15 we lifted the unused engine out of the water and our speed increased to 4.3 kts. We stopped at 6:00pm at mile marker 70.

Christa and Gianluca tossing a volleyball on Kentucky Lake. Video upload from my phone.

Mateo and Gianluca on the boat at Green Turtle Bay Marina, evening party, from my phone.