Hope everyone had a nice christmas back home! We finally enjoyed our christmas dinner last
night as we were sailing on christmas and boxing day in order to make it to Vero Beach in
time for some high winds and rain to hit. Karl ended up doing most of the steering on
boxing day as it was raining quite heavily and we don't have a rain shield... He has a
wetsuit so he strapped the sucker on and took one for the team! What a trooper..
When we finally arrived at the Marina at 420 we picked up our christmas pressies that we had
sent ourselves while still in the boatyard, and had a satisfying meal of Kraft dinner with
bacon to set the tone for unwrapping.. Karl and his father got lots of bits and pieces,
parts and LED lights and things for the boat/engine. I acquired my sprouting seed sampler
from Wheatgrasskits.com!! Karl says the boat will looks like a Chia pet when im done with
it! I concur.. We had our official christmas dinner last night, with all the fixings and
ham from a can. I attempted my moms coleslaw which had to be tediously grated since using a
food processor on a boat is an absurd idea..
Now that the good stuff is outta the way, make way for the breakdowns and lamenting! On
boxing day we discovered that our one solar panel is not working (the backup was left in
Canada) Its possible and suspected that one cell is defective, rendering the rest of them
useless for now.. We also discovered that the steering wheel for the boat is making a rather
loud and strange thudding sound coming from under the boat.. in the direction of the rudder.
Worst case scenario we have to pull the boat out of the water somewhere to inspect the
rudder. Best case is Karl diving to the rudder to tighten a suspected loose fitting at the
bottom of the rudder. That can't be done for a while because the water is not clear enough
yet. Needless to say this is problem that must be fixed, lest we lose the power to steer
the boat in a precarious situation. In addition to this, our wind turbine is not working
properly. Its spinning nicely because we are having the perfect wind and are on a mooring
bouy. However, curiously, its giving us 10% of the power that it's supposed to. In concert
with the dead solar panel this is proving to be quite damaging to the general morale of the
crew. Even my lemons are going bad.. What do you do when life gives you mouldy lemons?