E is for Electricity

E is for Electricity

The newest crew member of Celebrian is Harold(Hal the Happy Hummer)who has been a most welcome addition!

The painting of the post for the wind generator took place on shore in Marsh Harbour. The captain took the opportunity to spruce up our cowl vents as well. Cowl vents allow breeze into the cabin through the deck but not water.

Of course once the painting is done you have to find some place to let it dry?!?

After the pole was erected it was time to fit the braces of stainless steel. Most people put wind generators on their boats before they go cruising and we can understand why.

After everything was put together it was time for the wiring and sending the captain up in the bosun's chair to assemble the tail and the wings. we picked a day when the wind wasn't blowing too hard as you might imagine it was quite the procss. We were all by ourselves in an anchorage on Elbow Cay so we didn't raise too many eyebrowsc

The Hopetowm lighthouse is a real landmark in The Abacos. The first year that we cruised in Abaco we climbed to the top.

While the captain was wiring the wind generator I took the opportunity to kayak around White Sound and check out how some of the ex pats live. The beach has been bull dozed up on quite a grade for ocean protection. we see signs of Hurricane Irene wherever we go.

If I was looking for a place to holiday I must say I could be happy staying at this spot....The Abaco Inn. Guests stay in little cabins right on the ocean beach complete with your own hammock. We had wanted to celebrate Rob's birthday here; however we had to move anchorages because of the weather and it was back to the Marsh Harbour area. We hiked down to CJs Welding to pick up the stainless steel struts for the wind generator. These struts will brace the now, white and beautifully painted post hanging across Celebrians'bow drying. We decided that we needed a break from busy Marsh harbour and headed over to Man O War for a change of venue. The winds are settled trade winds of 10-15 knots so the protection over at Man O War is perfect. I did some stainless steel polishing while Rob worked away at the logistics of the generator and its new braces. We got it assembled and ready for the next step. We spent a quiet and lovely evening in one of our favourite hub area anchorages. Today we decided to head over to Hope Town, famous for its candy striped lighthouse. Once again we picked an anchorage with good protection from the easterlies. There are large beach houses along the coast of Elbow Cay, but few seem to be occupied. We often find this the case. People must be too busy making the money to own these places and have little time to spend here. Once again we feel blessed that we are here and have the time to cruise. Today's challenge is to get the post with the generator up and braced. For the time being we are busy with getting all systems up and running. As is often the case we find ourselves with problems to solve. Little Harry, our Honda Generator had major surgery at the end of last season and is refusing to start. The captain has not had time to trouble shoot with Harry so for now we are relying on the engine to charge our new batteries. Of course the wind generator will help our cause once it is up and running and that project for the time being is upper most in the job list. We tried to run our water maker today and Sir Anthony Watermaker the Third is giving us grief so he has been shut down and put on the captain's list. You will recall the definition of cruising that I have written about before..."Cruising is fixing things in exotic places." We are not sure what is wrong with Anthony; however he too is on the captain's list. It is times like this that I get off easy; however as head computer technician I have my trials and tribulations?? Until all our systems are up and running we can not leave for Eleuthera. We were hoping for a weather window this coming weekend but time will tell.

We will be back in Marsh Harbour later this week to do our final provisioning, laundry and any other jobs that need doing. I will hook up to Bahama Wimax to send out my blog entries, check email and make phone calls. Then it may be a couple of weeks before you hear from us again as we will be on our way to Eleuthera and The Exumas. As is always the case when cruising the best laid plans are subject to change. The weather is not cooperating and we are likely to be another week before leaving The Abacos for Eleuthera which will make our departure early February. The good news is that our wind generator is up and spinning. For entertainment we can watch how many amps are going into the batteies. It should get very exciting over the weekend as we are expecting a cold front with winds of 25-30 knots. It was very satisfying to get the wind generator going and now the captain has to turn his attention to Sir Anthony. This means tearing apart the pullman berth and moving everything to the salon area while he trouble shoots the system. We also have to run several gallons of water through the system to clear all the pickling solution. The pickling solution is done to keep the system purified over the summer. If all goes well we hope to make water while we motor over to our next anchorage. The next blog entry tells the story....F is for Frustration.

And through it all the capain keeps smiling as he celebrates his birthday!