The Greening Of Myananda
17 January 2010 | Simpson Bay Marina, Simpson Bay Lagoon, St. Maarten
kurt flock, cool, cloudy, intermittent drizzle
[The photo above shows boxes of new solar panels and wind generation equipment being delivered to Myananda.]
I woke this morning at 6:00 a.m. to a gray dawn and the soothing pitter patter of rain drops on Myananda's coach roof. The sound reminds me of misty mornings in DeBorgia, Montana when I would awaken similarly to the music of rain drops dancing happily on the pine roof of my cabin there. The world awakens at a more leisurely pace Sunday mornings, so as I crawl from bed, I resist the temptation to roust Kate and Sophie from their seemingly sound slumber.
My mind slowly gains traction over random and wandering thoughts, and I find myself wondering whether the Colts beat the Ravens last night. Though we are at a marina, we have no television hooked up, and local radio stations are more likely broadcasting church hymns this morning than NFL scores, so I wander to the marina office to pick up a copy of the Miami Herald only to find there's no delivery Sundays.
As I shuffle back to the boat, I grin while wondering what my good friend and sailing buddy Dennis Ryerson would think about this. Dennis is editor of the Indianapolis Star, and I'm absolutely certain he would find the lack of a Sunday morning paper uncivilized, if not horrifying, and most likely both.
I figure I'll check the score later, so I return to Myananda, grind some medium roast illy beans in our Zazzenhaus knee grinder, flip on the propane, and boil water for early morning java. I'm not a big coffee drinker and probably wouldn't bother if using our exquisitely designed French press fabricated by Germans wasn't so easy. I add the requisite scoop of raw sugar and dollop of Bailey's knowing soon I'll have plenty enough energy to annoy Kate as soon as she rises.
If allowed, I'd have here day programmed as soon as her Crocs hit the cabin sole. After cooking me a fantastic breakfast of crepes served with powdered sugar and fresh strawberries, she'd clean the heads, do the laundry, re-provision the pantry, and then on her hands and knees begin stripping the teak while wearing her sexy new French bikini. She would do all of this willingly, happily, and all the while humming her favorite Bob Marley ballads. Or I can start wearing a hat while spending so much time in the sun.
While I'd love to be writing a Sunday saga of adventure on the high seas, we resigned ourselves to spending the next week or so in St. Maarten outfitting Myananda with some sexy new green energy systems and turn her into a bona fide cruising yacht. We're adding three 85 watt and two 130 watt Kyocera solar panels (total = 515 watts) that will produce 30 amps of juice while the sun is shining, and a D400 Eclectic Energy wind generator to supplement the solar power. To do this, FKG Rigging is reworking our aft stainless and fabricating a new pole, all to support the new systems. Like everything else, this stuff takes more time than you expect.
FKG said reworking the stainless should take one day, so we delivered the boat to their dock bright and early this past Thursday. It's Sunday, and we're back at Simpson Bay, and FKG's still isn't done. Thursday rolled into Friday, and Friday the workers were run off the boat five times by intermittent rain that bedeviled their welding efforts. Apparently they prefer to not operate their TIG welder during tropical downpours. Can't blame 'em, so we endure yet another lesson in "island time".
I think I've accepted the realities associated with trying to get anything done on a schedule down here, but despite breathing exercises and her dedication to Yoga, the oft requisite waiting on workers or the hunt for proper materials pushes Kate's patience to the limit, especially if the boat remains in a state of chaos or disorder for long. On such occasions I find it best that she avail herself to the reliably therapeutic effects of shopping, mattering not for what.
It's now 9:00 a.m.. Kate's up, and I've checked in with Norm, a new cruising buddy from Lake Placid, NY who owns a Valiant 42 with his wife Michaelka. He bought the boat from the builder and installed virtually all of the ship's systems himself.
Norm's a wizard of all things electrical and mechanical, and luckily his wife had to return to the states for a couple of weeks, and since he's type A and bored with nothing to do, he's agreed to help me with the installation of our solar and wind generating systems. Actually, it's more like me helping him since his depth of knowledge about these things exceeds my neophyte aptitude by quantum measures.
Several days ago our battery charger was down (before I rebuilt the Outback), so I was necessarily running our diesel at the dock to charge our batteries. It was evening, and the fumes were wafting downwind, across the dock into Norm's cabin through hatches open to catch the evening breeze. Norm stopped over and politely asked if I'd mind shutting our engine down since the fumes were making them sick. I was five minutes from doing so anyway and happily obliged.
Since I'm a huge fan of Norm's boat, the Valiant 42, we struck up a conversation, and the next morning Norm invited me over for a tour. His boat is spectacularly equipped. Like the Valiant 42, Myananda is also a Bob Perry design, so the bond of a new friendship was set. It's quarter to ten now, and Norm will be here in 15 minutes. I'll post some photos later that will show the progress we're making on "The Greening of Myananda".