Spare Fuel Part One

I'll begin by quoting three paragraphs from my blog entry of 27 Feb 2011:

At the start of our cruise there were 25.5 engine hours on the clock and the diesel tanks were full.
At the end of the cruise there were 61.4 engine hours on the clock and it took 108 liters to top up the fuel tanks.  This represents a consumption of 3.01 liters per hour.

I looked back at my records, and the SABB engine was remarkably consistent in its fuel consumption of 2.3 liters an hour.  However, Brenda agrees that we tended to drive the SABB a lot easier that we do the new Volvo. 

At that rate Pachuca's 140 liter fuel capacity will provide about 47 hours of running.  However, I would expect at least 50% more hours if we use the engine solely to recharge our batteries (and provide some heat) during our long passage around the Horn.  That means 70 days if we run the engine an average of one hour per day.

Some of my assumptions may have been a bit rosy.   I can't be sure that fuel consumption will drop to 1.5 liters per hour when motoring along at low revs in order to charge up the batteries.  And I'm not sure that I can restrict engine runs to an average of 1 hour per day.  On the other hand, I expect a lot of help from the solar panels during the first month of the leg to the Horn.  As we get further south the wind charger will make a better contribution and the refrigerator will have to work less hard and eventually not work at all when I shut it down.  In any event I expect the passage to Cape Town to take 100 days, much longer than the 70 days of available fuel in that earlier estimate.  It didn't take me long to conclude that I would have to carry more fuel, and that fuel would be carried on deck because there won't be room either below or in the lazarette.

I already had on board 1 x 20 liter and 2 x 10 liter containers, yielding 40 liters, or just over 10 gallons of spare fuel.

Today I purchased 2 x 20 liter and 3 x 23 liter containers yielding 109 liters, or just over 28 gallons.

That will provide a total of 149 liters, or 38 gallons of spare fuel, which will be more that the 140 liters that I carry in the internal tanks.

The total fuel supply of 289 liters, or 76 gallons, should see me OK to Cape Town.

Part 2 of the project is to set up timber rails between two stanchions on each side of the deck to provide a base on which to securely lash the containers.