New solar panel

We were waiting for a solar panel and it arrived today...so we dinghied into town again, had lunch at Dinghy Dock, and then went to the Post Office. The solar panel is a small 18 Watt one to trickle charge our electric windless battery...Rick made all the connections to the battery and put the panel in the sun...works great! It even came with a small regulator and all the wiring stuff was included :) When we are sailing we will put the panel below deck...disconnecting is real easy...and it is just as easy to put back up when we are at anchor or on a mooring. We shall see how things work out long term! So far looking good :)

The sun will shine again tomorrow...I caught the last glimps of her for today on the horizon over Dewey tonight :)

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...

 

The perfect couple!

Solar and Wind generation at its best :)

YESSSS...as of today we are officially off the grid producing our own power! Freedom here we come. My captain has worked relentlessly to get us to this point and I can not thank him enough! All systems are a go and even the refrigerator/freezer turned itself on, ran for about two hours, and will shut itself off within the next few minutes...woohoo! An initial inverter overload turned out to be a loose wire and was fixed in no time at all :) We have a coldplate system for refrigeration, which means in simple terms that there are stainless steel plates which hold the cold for hours after being charged. This is very different to a household system that runs 24/7. Refrigeration is a must have for us here in the tropics...we know a few cruisers who live without, but for these Two Sweeties on Orion that is not an option :) Now that things are running off the grid we shall monitor everything and start getting ready for a few days away from the dock...another test run so to say. We should be able to cut the ducklings (I mean dock lines, but the spell check suggested ducklings when I typed docklines...hahaha...too cute not to leave it there right? Right!) for good within the next few weeks...HOW EXCITING IS THAT???? Stay tuned please...

 

Catching the sun :)

There is sunshine in my life :)

We are slowly but steadily getting there! What a relief to have something else finished :) Rick designed the mount for our solar panel and then Pepin, the welder, fabricated the arches from stainless steel piping...then welded them to the existing dinghy davits on Orion's transom (back end of the boat)...then welded a swivel connection to each arch...and finally Rick mounted some flat crossbars to the back of the panel as well as a round ss pipe that fits into the swivel connectors...attached the whole "schmier" to the arches and voila...let the sunshine in :)

 

the two arches welded on top of the dinghy davits

 

The new solar panel will be connected to four new batteries after the new wind generator has been installed...Uff...two more "big" projects...but after that we should be self sufficient as far as power is concerned AND READY TO CUT THE DOCK LINES!!!!!!! Saludos to my sweetie, the captain, who tirelessly forges on :) There is not much I can do to help him, so I stay out of the way and attend to some smaller projects of my own (i.e. making courtesy flags, mosquito screens, sun shades, and fixing the rain enclosures for the cockpit)...in case you are wondering: we are still having fun and go and play with our friends whenever we can ;)

Here's the captain perusing the manual for the new wind generator...there is no time for the wicked, hahahahaha. All of this is very exciting for us and we are learning a lot! Thanks for following our adventures...stay tuned...there is lots more to come...