I left my 44 foot sailboat Solitude in Spanish Water on Curaçao in The Netherlands Antilles back in August and thanks to friends on the island who took really good care of her, she was in nearly perfect condition when I got back in early January. This time, unlike the all the other times, I had only little things to do to get Solitude ready for adventure, this time with a few Danish friends of mine, Kenneth and Flemming. Now I write little things but little things always turn into big things when you are on a sailboat and only can produce 12 volt, however, Kenneth and I managed to get a brand new winch for the mainsail on the mast, a brand new wind generator installed, put up a new clock and chronometer and because some of the batteries were dead, we replaced all 5 of them. On the bottom line, now we have cold beers in the fridge and don't have to worry about power.
Right now it is about 6 o'clock at night, I can hear the wind generator working in the 20 knots wind, the meter tells me the wind generator is charging my batteries with 5 amp, Kenneth is a sleep caused by too many beers last night and in a few hours I will drive to the airport to pick up Flemming. Another friend, Mark, just phoned me from freezing cold, snowy and dark Denmark to tell me he wants to come and visit so we are going to meet him somewhere on the islands but don't know where yet.
So, where are you sailing to? Good question, write it down... We will go where the wind will take us and at the moment, with the wind direction, we will end up in the north eastern corner of the Lesser Antilles but, like I have experienced before, that can change during the trip. The idea is to cut the moorings Saturday, set sail and head for the sea. We can't wait to go on this adventure.
For unknown reasons one of the speakers were not playing and after checking wires and everythings else, we had to replace them with brand new ones. I found the receipt for the old ones and and they were bought one year ago minus one day. In the marine shop I got the money back with no problems, how lucky was that....?
The meter on the left tells me how much volt is on the batteries and how much the solarpanels are charging. On the right hand side is the amp meter for the wind generator.
Kenneth fixing one of the winches.
The brand new Harken self tailing winch installed on the mast and the new wind generator in the back ground.
The captain getting ready for dinner time with lots of beef.
New clock and chonometer I got from my mom. :-)
Everything was installed and ready. This is the first time the wind generator is spinning on Solitude.
Another shot of the newly installed Harken winch on the mast.
This spot on the boat is the shower area. You take up the black back, jump in the sea, come out of the sea, put soap in areas you think is worth getting clean, jump in the sea again to wash of soap and then shower with fresh water. What is more interesting is the new Air Breeze wind generator on the top of the rack.
On the way from Solitude to Hugo and Cecilie from Serendipity the outboard engine broke so Kenneth and I had to stop and fix it. Aparently it was air in the system that caused this pitstop.
The sun sets over Spanish Water.
Kenneth drilling holes for the new meter to the wind generator.
