Side note: This is day 3 without power at the marina due to a large thunderstorm that toppled trees and power lines knocking out power to the entire area a few nights ago. No internet and no shore power at most marinas. Here marina generators keep their offices, restaurants, and hotel rooms minimally powered.

Today we continue inspections and testing for lightening strike damage. A look up the mast reveals the VHF radio antenna is gone. Also up the mast, we already know the wind instrument is dead. Further tests show the AIS & radar both dead. We took a direct lightening hit to the top of the mast.

Visual checks of the base of the mast, port & starboard shrouds, show no obvious exit point. All that energy has to go somewhere... The insurance company wants a "quick haul" to inspect the hulls for exit hole(s) and related damage. There is only one place here that can haul-out Vida Dulce, Abel's, a very busy commercial shipyard. Jerry contacts them and lets them know our situation, Abel says they can take us Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Other inspections and testing:
Both Raymarine & Garmin autopilots are dead. We had the Raymarine one still working as our primary and Garmin as secondary; now we have none. Man am I glad we're already at the marina. Moving Vida Dulce much of a distance without an autopilot would be difficult; she's a heavy beamy boat to hand-steer.

The NIMA 2000 network fails to show the still operational instruments.

Solar charge controller is damaged; voltage comes in however the batteries are not being charged. This is very bad. We rely on the solar panels to keep the batteries full while we're away. This will also need to be taken back to the States to be bench-tested.

Dead inverter/charger stop gap measure: W&L thankfully has one battery charger in stock that will work as a stop gap measure; a 12 volt 40 amp model. Jerry wanted a minimum of 50 amps however you have to be happy with whatever you can find here that'll reasonable work. Jerry wires the new battery charger to circumvent the inverter charger. Until shore power is restored, we'll run the genset to supply power to the charger. In addition to charging the house batteries, this gives us hot water and one interior outlet for laptops.

I'll take Jerry up the mast sometime today or tomorrow for pictures and additional inspections. This will also test one of the main electric winches.

Good news: genset powers on; both engines start, manual bilge pumps work, and the salon helm station Garmin chart plotter works: depth sounder ok, GPS also appears to be working.