Sunrise
As soon as the sky started lightening prior to sunrise I was awake and making my first cup of coffee of the day. The night had been wonderfully calm and I’d slept very well; and the anchorage remained calm for the day as well! What a difference the lack of rolling made to my internal “cranky old man” level.
I’ve moved my two extra starter batteries to the swim platform until such time as I find a new owner. They are surplus to requirements, as they were only used for the passage up from Grenada and won’t fit into my battery compartment for the start and 12V house batteries.
Europe switched back the clocks over the weekend, so all of my meetings are now an hour earlier than before. I dread the once-weekly 2AM meeting, although most of my MS-Teams videoconferences are scheduled for the central-european afternoon.
Noon
It has been mixed cloudy and sunny today, and the battery bank was full and switched to absorption mode by 12:30. Perhaps I should just get rid of my generator, since the solar system is working very well. If I were to add a D400 wind generator it would round out my power supply system.
Afternoon
I could have chosen a better time to remove the forward solar panels. The past days it has been windstill, which would have been perfect. But I waited until the winds picked up again and that made the job a bit more difficult and certainly messier. I pried up the first old panel (breaking it in the process) and then had to attack the old 5200 adhesive with a chisel to remove most of it. I’d not realized how the heat generated by the slim panel would craze and attack the gelcoat underneath. It is cracked and certainly damaged, luckily the next solar panel will go right over the broken bits.
The second panel was even more work to remove and despite the knowledge that the old panel was end-of-lifed it hurt to hear the cracking sounds from it as I pried it off. Nonetheless I’ll clean the area off tomorrow, after having removed most of the 5200. Then I’ll use 4200 to seal it, hopefully that will make the next replacement process go somewhat easier.
Sundown
I opted to remain aboard tonight. Now that the anchorage is calm, I have no great incentive to go ashore. I’ve had enough of happy hour at the moment, although tomorrow might be a different story. I’ve got two spicy Johnsonville Brats thawing out for the BBQ later. The baked potato is also warming up and will get re-heated on the grill.