2:00 p.m. I am sitting in shade ashore. The temperature in GANNET’s Great Cabin is 104ºF/40ºC with the hatches open. Even with the fan blowing hot air onto me, I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I have solar panels to install. Maybe tomorrow morning.
I arrived back two evenings ago to find GANNET musty and with batteries reading 11.8 volts, but otherwise in good condition. I switched the wires from the Solar Boost 3000i to the back-up regulator and the battery charge is slowing rising. It is possible that the regulators are limiting the charge because of their own temperature.
The two new Solbian solar panels were here on my arrival, as was the box with the repaired Raymarine tiller pilots and masthead wind unit I shipped to myself.
The three tiller pilots work as does the wind unit.
The Solbian panels will be individually wired to Genasun charge boosters and I have decided rewire the two panels already on the boat that way, too. Presently wired in series, if one panel is partially shaded it reduces the output of both. Wired individually, it won’t.
I have no idea when that will happen. Perhaps when hell freezes over. As hot as is the Great Cabin, the dead space in the stern where I will have to crawl to rewire those panels is even hotter.
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One evening in Hilton Head, I decided that since I was in the South I should taste some bourbon, which I do not usually drink. I told the bartender to decide for me. He asked unnecessarily, “Do you want good or bad?” When I naturally said good—who would want bad?—he poured something called Buffalo Trace. While it is not going to replace Laphroaig in my affection, it is good. I bought a bottle here yesterday, though 104º is not exactly whiskey weather.
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The above photo was taken from the Keys Shuttle van on the way from Ft. Lauderdale airport. The distance is about 140 miles and the trip took four hours, longer than my flying time from Hilton Head to Ft. Lauderdale.