L'Eau Commotion Westabout

9pm Tuesday 22nd August 2017 A gentle sail most of last night with the wind gradually backing and getting lighter. I sort of kept an eye on it but the gentle increase was asserted by rapid small vibration from the wind generator really rattling the solar panel and aerials. I put the electric brake on, set sail for Cape Leeuwin and had breakfast while waiting for it to get fully light. I soon saw that one of the blades was noticeably shorter so hove to and cut down the other two from 600mm to 520 mm whilst still on the hub and then trimmed off the jagged bits with the battery powered angle grinder. I will spare you the gruesome details of hanging on, caught in stays etc,etc,. Suffice it to say that once underway and on the breeze it was quiet as and pushing out respectable power. So why not get the desalinator to earn its keep. Geish ganaw ,geish ganaw and after a respectable time the Eau de vie started to trickle out and then ...... nothing! That was the second heart stopper of the morning. All the possi ble complexities flooded through the mind but logic prevailed and after much mucking around ( and hanging on ) as the boat was heeling 20 to 30 degrees and doing 6 to 7 knots it was confirmed that the circuit wiring was too light and the breaker undersized. Not entirely fixed but simple to remedy. Incidentally I measured the current draw on geish 3.6 amps ganaw 2.4 amps so well within the rated average draw of 6 amps. This is good news as the windmill can produce this in quite moderate conditions. Still perfect sailing conditions as I prepare a hot chocolate for a nightcap. --------------010105090001010601090308--