From Vieques to Culebra

This morning we watched a beautiful sunrise over Vieques...there was no wind at all and we debated whether to wait for some or to go ahead and motor to Culebra. In the end we decided to motor, knowing that we could always raise the sails should the wind come up.

Well it is a good thing that we decided to get on the way under motor, because the wind did not come up at all...nada, zero, zilch wind!

We arrived in Culebra around mid day, having motored all the way from Vieques...the sea was like glass most of the time...kind of unusual, but we are not complaining, because it made for an easy relaxing ride...much better than having to fight our way against the wind :)

We have been to Culebra many times with our kids when we still had a power boat...and we always enjoyed our stays there...Culebra is a very special place to us...there are no big shops, no fast food chains...just pure and simple living on an island...heaven!

Over the years Rick and I always dreamed of one day going to Culebra on our own sailboat (!)...so now our dream has come true and we are extremely happy and grateful.

Our first anchorage in Culebra is by the DRNA dock, because our friends Bob and Judy (and their little dog Leo) on SV Adastra are anchored there, and they have invited us for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow afternoon...woohoo :)

This is SV Adastra, which is also a Morgan 41 but a Classic (ours is an Out Island)...we met Bob and Judy (and their little dog Leo) in Salinas a few weeks ago and became good friends...so here we are meeting again :)

The cruiser life is full of such pleasant surprises...it's a community out there and,we are all part of a big family...happy, I may add :)

wind generator and solar panel on ORION

By the way...our KISS wind generator and the solar panel are doing their jobs nicely...producing juice to run our fridge/freezer...so far we have not had to run the generator to top off the batteries (!)...wind and sun energy at its best and we have not even had much wind lately!

This is it for today! I am trying to update our blog more frequently during our new life as full time cruisers. We shall see how it goes once we are out of US waters, but wifi is available throughout the islands we have been told, so I will post updates whenever possible :)

Special greetings to Rick's Dad Harvey Klumb, who at 93 years young loves to follow our adventures through this blog...We love to have you onboard Dad :)

Greetings also to all our family and friends...you know who you are :) We are blessed to have you!

Wishing everybody a wonderful Thanksgiving...until soon again...

 

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!

Catching the wind...

Okay...this is it...our new wind generator for Orion...my captain has assembled it painstakingly, drilled holes in the aluminum pole as well as in the damper attachment, and finally put it all together :). The unit is a KISS, which stands for "Keep It Simple Stupid"...honestly...no joke. Before we finally bought it we researched wind generators on the web and haunted many of our cruiser friends with our questions on what they have and why and are they happy with what they have and if not why not...you get the drift :) Affordability was of course a main factor as well in the decision making process! Well...the KISS wind generator made number one in our books. The KISS has been around for quite a few years and many cruisers swear to it...please note: swear TO it not AT it...(although sometimes they might swear at it as well, hahahaha). A clever guy invented the KISS and used to manufacture it in Trinidad. His name is Douglas Billings, but we could not get in touch with him...emails and telephone calls remain unanswered! Luckily we found the (only) distributor for the KISS in the USA...a very knowledgable entity called SV Hotwire. They sell the unit at a little higher price, but boy let me tell you...their customer service is outstanding...and I mean outstanding! John and Libbie of Hotwire Enterprises are alternative energy experts and it was a pleasure dealing with them. We chose the KISS for the following reasons: operates quietly...needs minimal wind to start...is of such simple design that (if something breaks, which is not often) spare parts are readily available in automotive stores (!)...is comparatively light weight...fits in our budget...oh...and the customer service from SV Hotwire (Hotwire Enterprises) is outstanding...I think I mentioned that twice before ;)

We bought the unit with all the bells and whistles so to say...a damper attachment, which prevents shaking and rattling noises inside the boat (so that you don't feel like being on an airstrip when the plane takes off) and an MPPT controller, which is too technical for me to describe...suffice it to say that the MPPT controller diverts excess energy without manual input, so that the unit does not need to be monitored 24/7...this comes in handy when leaving the boat to go shopping or for extended periods away and gives peace of mind to us troubled cruisers!

Here is the KISS lying on the dock ready to be installed...the three blades that belong to the unit and make it look like a proper wind mill are not attached yet. My wonderful husband spent many hours getting the KISS ready...for which he got a kiss from me :)

Then came the day of installation and nothing went according to plan...but of course this is normal for us now, because IT IS A BOAT!!!! We are shouting this out with humor, because for every cruiser it is the same and it is our way of life now :) So "do tell" you might say, and here goes the story: With the help of our friend Jonso (thank you Jonso) Rick erected the KISS on the aft deck and attached the two supporting poles to hold it in place...all week we had zero zilch wind at the marina, but as soon as the KISS was up on its pole a wind gust of about 25 knots or higher swooshed over Orion and started the blades on the KISS running like crazy...of course nothing was properly secured yet and the support poles rattled loose (!)...trying to stop the blades from spinning, Rick realized that it was almost impossible to reach them...the pole was too high (!) It also became apparent that the top of the unit was not swiveling the way it is supposed to swivel. To make a long story short...with the help of another friend Alejandro (thank you Ale) they were able to stop the blades and tie one to the pole...uff! The next morning Rick took down the whole unit, dismantled everything, and went to work again shortening the pole...a phone call to John from Hotwire resulted in the elimination of a spring situated inside the unit, which was the probable cause of the non swiveling top...

All's well that ends well...our new KISS wind generator is finally installed...now off to running the wires and connecting everything...a big thank you to Jonso and Alejandro for helping...and of course much love to my captain who never gives up and forges on in our pursuit of happiness...we shall be "out there" real soon...woohoo :)