A Slight Delay: Welcome to the cruiser life!

Contrary to our last post on leaving the dock within a few days of the last shake down cruise we are still at the Marina de Salinas! No worries though...we just had to adjust plans, as we will have to do plenty of times in the future living the full time cruiser life. Nothing is ever chiseled in stone when traveling on the high seas! Most importantly everything is weather dependent...everything! In our case it is check dependent though...we are waiting for a check in the mail...no kidding! I guess there are worse reasons to be delayed, so I will spare you the ranting and raving. The delay should take around 2-4 weeks (!), but we are making the best of it :)

Things happen for reasons...when we heard that we were stuck here for another few weeks tropical storm Sandy was forming in the Caribbean, making this a time of staying in the area anyways! So we went to the supermarket and did more provisioning, de-cluttered the salon and aft cabin, re-arranged the whole hanging closet in the aft cabin and turned it into a non-hanging closet where we can now store all sorts of equipment from wet/dry vac to electric sander and polisher to ice boxes to parts for our Walker Bay dinghy that turn it into a little sailing dinghy to spare outdoor solar lights used when at anchor...and so on! In order to keep track of things I labeled the shelves with blue tape and permanent marker, not pretty but effective and since the sliding door will stay closed 99% of the time...who cares? Ahhhh...at last we are getting organized :) Of course I should have posted pictures of the whole "schmier" right here...but...ehem...I think pictures of Sweetie One and Sweetie Two are more appropriate...after all it is us who did all the work (!)

All this work and no play? Not really, because when we were finished we sailed to Boca de Infierno again, where we had a great time! Whilst anchored there our new found cruiser friends Bob and Judy and their little dog Leo aboard SV Adastra, their Morgan 41 Classic sailboat came to visit for two days. We had such fun together exploring Cajo Caribe (where there is a hiking trail), snorkeling, and inviting each other for dinner on our boats!

When they sailed on to Coffin Island sweetie one and sweetie two had Boca de Infierno for themselves again...we love you Bob and Judy :)

It rained quite a bit, which gave us a good reason to test our rain catching system in action...it passed the test with flying colors!

Since the last post we made some improvements...purchased the proper length wooden dowel and inserted it to the outer edge...added corresponding snaps to the bimini top seam to accommodate the placement of the system on top of the sun shade, so that we don't have to take down the sun shade when it rains.

The latter is important: Keeping the sun shade in place when it rains keeps the rain out of the cockpit and it also helps holding the rain gutter nice and straight...we just feed the drain hose from the outside of the sun shade into the water tank hole! Not to mention that we don't have to snap and unsnap said sun shade all the time...

It really worked very well...so now we have proof that we can catch the rain and fill out water tanks "out there" :)

On our way back to Salinas the weather was just perfect for sailing...we enjoyed being under full sails and spend almost three hours tacking back and forth on the ocean...just like little kids having fun with a favorite toy...oh the blessings of sailing...we never get tired of it :)

In the meantime there was trouble developing in the Caribbean...tropical storm Sandy had turned into a Category 1 hurricane forecasted to directly hit Jamaica and Cuba and adversely affecting Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rain falls!

I do not know how we got spared here in Puerto Rico...we are counting our blessings!

Hurricane Sandy left death and devastation in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the DR...and then developed into a monster storm off the coast of the Eastern USA when it combined with two storm systems, creating havoc and resulting in unprecedented destruction in many states along the coast line as well as further inland!

rainbow at boca de infierno

Mother Nature is unpredictable and not to be taken for granted...our prayers continue for everybody in the after-mass of this terrible storm just as they were with everybody at its beginning and duration!

Like the rainbow forms after the storm there will be light again at the end of the tunnel...God bless!

 

Simple Solution: Fender Straps

Made some simple fender straps the other day to solve the problem of having the fenders roll off the deck in rough sea conditions...a very important addition to Orion's outfit taking into consideration that we will be leaving the dock for good within the next few weeks!

The fenders are too big to store below deck, and we did not want to spend lots of money on stainless steel fender baskets...sooooooo...here is my solution: I cut strips of Phifertex material that I had on board, attached snaps (remember my snap tool?) and fastened one of the fenders to the stanchion and the other three to the whisker pole...end of story :)

As a cute interlude I'ld like to mention that upon hearing about my project my son Michael's friend Ben send me a link to "fender straps"...only that he is a guitarist and "fender straps" have a little different meaning in the music/guitar world :)

Thank you Ben for making me chuckle :)

Ben's fender straps :)

 

Final shake down...this is it!

What can I say? This is it everybody...our final shake down mini cruise before we sail off for good! After learning so much from our first shake down cruise we adjusted our power management and will run the engine for an hour on cloudy and windless days in order to properly top up the batteries. Luckily here in the Caribbean there are not too many cloudy and windless days, so things should be fine as far as making our own power on Orion is concerned :) Our main need for power is the refrigeration system...apart from that these two sweeties on Orion do not need much to be happy. Sometimes we watch a movie and listen to some music, but most of the time we like to listen to mother nature :)

The miraculously uneventful (for us) passing of tropical storm Rafael is causing large swells and clustered thunderstorms in its wake, so we decided to sail to Boca de Infierno instead of Coffin Island this time around. It is a much easier and shorter sail and will serve the purpose just fine. So here we are anchored of Boca de Infierno and things are a-o-kay :) The KISS has hummed its song all afternoon...whispering about how cool it feels to be energy independent and the solar panel chimed in as the soundless partner...we do not get tired of the pair :) The inverter reads a battery voltage of 13.3 (I hate to be technical)...we have SUPER POWER back...yeah and yeah and yeah :)

Yap...it is time to relax :) By the way...our new electric windlass worked like a charm and we anchored securely just in time for a heavy squall...phew!

We will take the next few days to get accustomed to living without shore power and managing our systems on Orion. Then we will sail back to the marina, rent a car and get the last provisioning done...and then we shall be cutting the dock lines for good and be true full time cruisers! The dream is coming true...and we are still pinching ourselves!

In case you are wondering what my captain is eating...cold pizza and apple slices made a delicious brunch and kept the kitchen cold, hahahaha...tomorrow we'll cook again :)

Stay tuned...it can only get better :)

 

A KISS FOR THE KISS! And a lesson learned!

Our KISS is working like a champ and there was nothing wrong with it to start off with :)

Troubleshooting revealed that it was "operator error" and not "equipment failure" for which we are very thankful, because it means we have to repair us rather than the KISS, hahahaha...it's better that way not to mention much cheaper :)

I let my captain explain everything in his own words in a separate post...suffice it to say that we let the batteries run down too much (but never below 50%, which would have been really bad) when at anchor and with little wind around they did not get topped up enough...apparently it takes a while to get them back to full again even with a lot of wind, but with no wind it takes quite a little while longer!!

All is well now and we have learned a lot from this experience! Our friends let us know that this is exactly what a shake down cruise is for: To find out the things that are different "out there" compared to being plugged in at the dock! We take this opportunity to thank all of our supportive friends...you know who you are :)

We also take this opportunity to thank the good people from Hotwire for their diligence, knowledge, and support of our problem...they truly are the best! As a matter of fact we are so impressed that we have and will keep recommending them to anybody in search of alternative energy solutions! Just recently at the marina we met a cruiser couple, who asked us about our wind generator and why we chose the KISS...we happily explained everything and recommended to contact Hotwire...they did and they also bought a KISS wind generator from them...so we are spreading the good word :)

The first shake down cruise on Orion is behind us...we are very happy that there were no big problems :)

AS OF NOW ALL SYSTEMS ARE A GO and we shall do just that real soon!

We will embark on a second shake down cruise next week...weather permitting, as we are watching tropical storm Rafael to the east of us...return to the marina for a few days to do the final provisioning (more food purchase and storage) and then we shall be cutting the dock lines for good...woohoo! Until soon again...thanks for following us on our adventures :)

Shake down results!

Oki doki...we are back at the dock at Marina de Salinas. The sail from Coffin Island was a little rough because of a squall front, but sailing back from Coffin Island is usually accompanied by some big seas and the wind right on our nose...we just got so used to it that we enjoy the ride and it feels sooooo good to turn off the motor and let the breeze carry us :)

The good news is that our brand-new main sail performed very well...it just needs some adjustment on the first reefing point, but Fraito from Ponce Sailing Center will take care of it when we get in touch with him.

The not so good news is that our brand-new wind generator stopped "making juice" whilst we were anchored! We thought that the sudden lack of battery power was due to not enough wind, but we were mistaken! We found out when the wind finally picked up and there was still not much power getting into the batteries (!)...So the solar panel had done most of the work and of course we ran the engine for an hour the night before to top up the batteries and run the fridge/freezer as I mentioned in my last post. Ah well...this is why a shake down cruise is so important...at least we still have time at the dock to work on whatever is necessary! My captain did some tests today and got in touch with John from Hotwire, who recommended some more troubleshooting...so tomorrow we shall know a bit more than we know today...it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be. I feel quite helpless with all this technical talk, so I stay out of the way and offer moral support to my sweetie...and will make myself scarce useful tomorrow by doing the laundry...isn't that exciting?

Apart from this our shake down cruise revealed all positive results :) The fridge/freezer turned on like a champ (Rick replaced the wires from battery to inverter with some handsomely thick ones before we left) and temperatures remained cool, very cool...inside the fridge and freezer, of course :) We were able to use our electric coffee maker in the morning (very important to us) and reload the batteries on our electronics (laptop, tablet computer, netbook computer, ipad2, nook, and cell phones).

On the whole my sweetie and I like to keep it simple when it comes to electric equipment on the boat...we only have the coffee maker...no microwave, fancy blender or other stuff for the galley (kitchen), because that's how we prefer it! We actually got rid of the microwave...really and truly...and haven't missed it at all :) Only recently we bought an electric mini chopper for making our own hummus...works like a charm, requires little space and little clean up :)

Thanks for listening...stay tuned...more on the wind generator saga coming soon!

Shake down time!

Yessss...shake down time for us in the sense of a shake down cruise on Orion! We made the decision to go at our favorite hang out in Salinas...Sal Pa Dentro Waterfront Bar. Their slogan is "No Shirt...No Shoes...No Problem!" We like that, but opted to have shirts on, hahahaha. We left the marina on Monday and motored (!) all the way to Coffin Island, because there was not enough wind for us to sail...ah well...like my sweetie said: "If you want no wind install a wind generator"! So far this has proven to be true...here goes the trial out of our new main sail ;)...but no worries, we shall have plenty of wind again soon.

Our shake down cruise is going quite well so far, apart from the wind issue that is. Fridge/freezer are working like a charm on the solar and wind generator...the only problem is that the batteries are not recharging enough, which is due to...you guessed it...the low wind conditions we are experiencing at the moment. So today, Wednesday, the captain will fire up the Diesel for an hour to give all batteries a real good full charge again...of course we will run the fridge/freezer at the same time via the motor also...this should give our batteries time to relax without load :) Let's see what happens!

In the meantime we are enjoying life anchored at Coffin Island...snorkeling, relaxing, and all that good stuff!

When we were at the marina my sweetie cleaned and shined our BBQ grill...as you can see with top results, and this shake down cruise is the perfect opportunity to try it out...no problems at all...the pounded chicken breast seasoned with a mix of chipotle paprika and topped with Muenster was just yummie yummie :) Thanks to the BBQ Chef!

 

This morning I made a fritata, using fresh ingredients as well as left-over chicken...life is good on Orion :)

 

 

To top it all...mother nature is producing some spectacular sunsets :)

We will most probably head back to the marina in a day or two, as we are watching 98L...a bad weather system, which may come our way...hopefully it will turn off to the north!

Let's see if we can do some sailing on the way back...chances are good :)