I'm really enjoying these, Chris - thank you. Couple of Q's for you: Like your Grady, it's hard to carry a dinghy on our Cutwater. How suitable is a paddle board as a replacement? Did you consider other options? (I noticed a sport fish that just parked on the beach with an anchor out, another option?) And you use an adapter pigtail to plug your generator into the Grady just as tho' you were dockside, yes? While feeding the battery charger, it also powers the A/C unit, microwave etc. as needed. That is our intention as well. Any issues? Remain very impressed with your fuel consumption, especially on that boisterous run out to Fort Jeff.
Good questions Jack. Technically you are not supposed to pull up boats right on the beach on Garden Key, however with the docks out of service the rangers are pretty lenient about it. The paddle board is no dinghy replacement but certainly handy getting into shallow waters. If I did it over again would probably get the kayak model instead of the paddle board. Works great as long as the harbor is calm. The generator runs everything just fine using a standard 15 to 30 amp adapter. I will caution that your boat is going to be a different situation due to the on-board GFCI main breaker. It will mostly likely trip on a portable generator due to the lack of a ground-neutral connection (no ground). On my Regal, I had to make my own cable that connected the ground and neutral and then it worked no problem on the portable generator.
@@floridaboatguy I'll have to research the inflatable kayak market as I know zip about it. Thanks, Chris. Re: the gen having no ground/neutral connection, I solved this for the camping trailer by wiring up a 'goes nowhere' plug on the 2nd gen socket. Perhaps that would work as well for the Cutwater. We used to all just be boaters. Now we've got to be marine engineers, it seems. Looking forward to #3. I'm really impressed with how much utility and comfort you've built into your Grady.
No kidding! We have to be electricians, plumbers, and engineers just to keep everything on our boats running. One thing I will add, I did buy an aircraft grade carbon monoxide detector which is extremely sensitive. This gives me peace of mind at night if sleeping while the generator is running. There are some videos as well as tutorials online detailing the ground-neutral connection for portable generators. Thank you as always for the comments! Coming from a larger 27 foot cabin cruiser, it was extremely comfortable and had all the comfort of home but I would take my small Grady offshore any day over that boat. I’ve slowly tried to add all the conveniences we had on that boat and have been pretty happy with the outcome. I definitely take seaworthiness over creature-comforts when doing these long distance trips. At this point, the only thing I miss is the hot water heater for showers!
Shawn, neither of the two lighthouses are operational anymore. I believe that the Loggerhead Key light was last lit about 10 years ago. Modern nav tools such as radar and chartplotter/GPS have mostly made the lights obsolete and not worth the cost of maintaining
