Today started out with morning, as it often does. Pat likes her coffee in the morning, but has to wait a bit for the sun to get high enough in the sky to get the solar panels going. But today things seemed a bit different, and I started the engine to charge the batteries while the inverter was used to run the electric one cup coffee maker. After coffee was made and the engine was turned off, we still weren’t getting any charging from the solar panels. The sun was low, but still, zero was the wrong answer. I assumed the wires under the panels wouldn’t suddenly go bad, and started going through the menus on the solar charge controller, which is a small pain to access - it’s location is not wonderful. Pat decided to go out and look at the wiring that I had discounted as being the issue. She found the smoking gun, literally. She found smoke coming out of a fitting, and clear plastic bubbling out, like water droplets. Holy cow, Batman! I had taped any connection that pulled apart, but this was one, solid plastic piece with three wires going in one side and one wire coming out. I hadn’t covered that with tape, it should be waterproof on its own. I cut out the defective piece, hereafter known as ‘The Wicked Witch of the West’ (... help, I’m melting ...), and replaced it with two oversized butt connectors to connect the four wires. Still to go is the heat shrinking and taping. And now, my panels put out more amperage than before. This whole trip, I saw 10, maybe 15 amps going in and felt a little cheated. I knew the panels were capable of more than that. After the change out, I was getting a steady 20 amps, with the inverter on charging something. So that means they were pumping in 21-22 amps ... and now the trip is almost over.

After that, we met my sister, Mary, for lunch. She stopped on her way to Jacksonville to visit her daughter and granddaughter. After lunch, we went to see my brother’s boat, one of the big tourist attractions here at St Augustine. With more experience, this time, we did a better job of breaking into the boatyard. The last time there, Roger built some steps to help get on the swim ladder and onto the boat. Showing off for my girlfriend and sister, I eschewed such baby steps and climbed up directly from the ground. Of course, this meant a bit of a jump back down, but that’s okay. I should be off the crutches in a week. 😉

Did I tell you I saw my solar panels pumping in 20 amps?! And I’m still wondering how I did this trip without Pat here figuring out all my problems!