Friday, January 9, 2015

Wind

It has been windy, now as sailors we are not supposed to complain about the wind but too much is still too much.  It all started Wednesday evening, a front was moving into the area and with it a lot of wind.  It blew all night in the 25-30+ knot range.  I got up several times during the night to check that we had not started to drag our anchor or that anyone near to us had.  Everything was fine.  After sunrise it was easier to watch but the wind continued.  It was too rough to take the dinghy to shore so we just stayed on the boat,  In the afternoon it dropped into the 15-20 knot range but we had intermittent showers.  By evening it was settling into the 10-15 range.

This morning dawned with partly cloudy skies and light wind, the front had moved on.  We received a call from the Honda shop that the generator was ready and I went ashore to get it.  Once on the boat it was hooked up and it was time to charge the batteries.  They were getting low and running the engine for a couple of hours didn't do much to charge them.  With the last couple of days overcast the solar panels were not helping.  The generator runs great, the next problem is the charger.  We have a 100 amp charger and when the batteries are low and the generator kicks in the charger wants to pull more amps then the generator can put out and it shuts down.  I was at the point of going out to buy a different lower power charger when I was given a phone number of "the guy" that could solve my problem.  His advice was to lower the charge percent on the charger.  After several Google searches I bit the bullet and made a call to tech support, a paid call from here in the Bahamas.  The tech walked me through the steps and the problem was solved with a $10 phone call.  The generator has been running for two hours and it has barely made a dent in charging the batteries.  I will have to start again tomorrow, no one wants to hear a generator all evening.

The part for the refrigerator did not show up.  They couldn't get one off of another boat and had to order one from the States.  He promised that it would be here later today or Saturday for sure.  When I asked if he worked on Saturdays he said no, but could come out to install it anyway.  We will see, we are in the islands and they are on island time.

We just keep telling each other "at least it isn't snowing."

2 comments:

  1. Not snowing in N.C. but it is COLD! Glad you are enjoying your new adventure!

    Pete & Suzanne

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  2. It's great to keep up with your adventures. Hope you continue to do well.
    John & Kathy
    Ching Ching

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