Captain's Blog

    DAY 1 - Crystal River to Anclote Key August 4, 2022 8.7 Hours/66.6 Miles Today is the day! Well, sort of... We are still 6 months away from the  "Official" start of the Great Loop  , and we want to "Cross Our Wake" in   Crystal River  sometime in November 2023. We are moving Pau Hana to it's new home in  Riviera Dunes Marina  in Bradenton Florida. This will be the staging and starting spot in February 2023 for our  Great Loop Adventure  and takes off about  127  miles of our over  5200  mile journey and several years of planning. We sold our waterfront home in Crystal River in July 2022 after living there for 21+ years. It was a tough decision but seemed like the right thing to do and fit in well with our future plans. One of the downsides was that we no longer had a place to moor our boat. In anticipation of this we purchased a slip in Bradenton, Florida. Bradenton (the marina is actually in Palmetto, Florida) is on the Manatee River  south of Tampa Bay. Fl

  Battery Charger & Separator What you think you have might not be what you actually have. That's what a friend of mine told me when discussing the setup in my boat...and he was right. The Camano was built with a Battery Separator. Instead of a mechanical battery switch, the separator is tied to the engine battery and the house battery bank.  The unit does 2 things. 1. Assist in engine starting:  When the engine starter is activated, the separator compares the voltage of both battery banks. If the start/engine battery is lower than the house battery bank, the Battery Separator will engage allowing the house battery to "aid" in starting. 2. Protect the starting system: The Battery Separator monitors the battery system to determine if the batteries are being charged. When the engine or house batteries reach 13-13.5 volts, indicating that charging is taking place, the Battery Separator will engage, joining the two battery banks. If the drain on the charging system by ei