Lemons Way

Continuing adventures, observations, and images.

Mike's sailboat at sunrise

Already back at dock. My week long cruise didn't last 24 hours. I was getting into the groove, made coffee, got the kayak on the water and paddled around the island where I came across these two huge clown fish, like a pound each. Then I paddled over to the sailboat in the above picture. I recognized this boat anchored in Shangri La Bay last time I was here. His name is Mike. He had several friends with him but usually cruises alone. He's taken that boat down past Puerta Villarta. It's not kept to OZ's standard, but not many boats are. When I got back to OZ I washed off my solar panels and then checked their power input. Zero. Uh oh. Solar was offline. I noticed the batteries weren't charging at all from the solar. This is dangerous when cruising because if the batteries go dead I can't start my engine. So much of the comfort, safety, and other gear on the boat is 12 volt DC or otherwise electric. Several new lights and a few new gadgets installed just since since last time. Turning an old sailboat into a better than new one takes a lot of time and replacement of so many components one wouldn't even think about all that goes into it. Fortunately Raul came by and, with Salvadore's help on the video call, they troubleshooted that the incoming power had become disconnected from the charge controller. In no time it was fixed and I could hear the fans energize and speed up with the added power coming into the system. 300 watts in four panels, two new 100 watt and two old 50 watt. Not a ton of capacity, but enough to run the fridge, fans, and navigation instruments, and it still offers 5 amps on top of that at mid day for charging the batteries. Voltage has gone from 12.25 to 12.78 in less than an hour under load. It appears to be more than enough solar power for this sailboat, I think. Still evaluating. While I'm back at dock I'm going to head into town for a few more supplies, don't want to run out of paper towels, then possibly back out on the water for the night, or maybe stay here at dock, it doesn't matter. Chow.

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