7/16/2010 - Still anchored in Blind Slough

Listening to the weather channel last night, it sounded like Monday might be promising for getting on our way. But listening tonight it didn't sound as good. So we'll just continue to bide our time. As soon as we have a pretty clear idea of when we're going, we'll head to Newport and spend a couple days tied to the transient dock. That'll give us time to do our laundry, get any groceries we think we still need, take on fuel for the engine as well as gas for the generator and outboard, take showers, empty the garbage, and be poised right at the bridge to scoot out as soon as conditions look good. Sitting here at anchor in the warm sunshine, it seems funny to be waiting for good weather. But, the hot temperatures they're getting inland are one cause of the big winds as cool ocean air rushes in to fill the void left by the warm rising inland air.

Today, Lulu scrubbed the entire topsides. After cleaning she deoxidized and waxed the topside fiberglass. Looks really good but now her back is killing her.

I worked on electrical issues. I decided to remove the ACR (automatic charging relay) from my system. It was probably doing what it was supposed to but it wasn't doing what I wanted it to. So I simplified things. The solar panels now recharge the house bank only; the engine alternator now charges the starting battery only and the 120VAC charger charges both with it's dual output. Ultimately I want the alternator to charge the house bank as well but I'm not sure of how I want to do that. The house bank and the starting battery are quite different animals and have different charging needs so I don't want to just parallel them.

Both computers, both cell phones and our toothbrush needed charging today. The used inverter I bought many moons ago didn't work when I tried it out. So, today I fired up the Honda EU2000i generator and charged up all the AC devices as well as the boat's batteries. The boat batteries didn't need much because the solar panels have been working great on the house bank and the staring battery has no load on it except when starting the engine. It took 2 hours to recharge the computers. Now we're good for a few more days. This is kind of a stupid way to do it. I'm going to have to break down and get a permanently-installed AC inverter so that I can recharge the AC stuff off the batteries which the solar panels can then bring back up to snuff.

After dinner (macaroni & cheese - NOT the boxed kind! and green beans) we took a little row in the dinghy to get a couple pictures of Siempre Sabado at anchor.

Here's hoping for a lessening of the winds off the coast.