We went grocery shopping the other day. We bought enough food to last the 240 mile stretch along the Mississippi. That is, if we had a stove to cook on. Which we don’t. Because the generator doesn’t work.

I’ve mentioned a few times that our starboard engine was giving us trouble. I didn’t mention that the generator was also giving us trouble because, in theory, we can make it to where we want to go without it.

In theory.

The thing is, we both use CPAPs to sleep and CPAPs require power. 

The stove requires shore power and we’re pretty sure the refrigerator does, too. The control panel says that the refrigerator can run on boat batteries, but the softness of our ice cream bars tell a different story.

Anchoring out

So we’re anchoring out for the first time tonight. 

We bought an inverter yesterday because that would charge our phones and laptops on boat batteries and let me keep working. It may be able to power one CPAP. 

It won’t power a stove, though and none of the groceries we bought include dinner food that doesn’t require cooking. We have enough bread for sandwiches for a week and enough milk for cereal for a day, so we’ll survive.

If it’s safe to store camp stove propane on board, and if we don’t manage to get the generator fixed, I may buy a camp stove for future nights where we’re anchoring out. We also plan on buying a BBQ for the aft deck. Then we can have burgers and beer!