This morning I slept in late, waking up at 08:30 and thinking I’d missed half the day. My head hurt as a reminder of last night’s excesses but I had chores to complete while in the sheltered lagoon waters so I pretended to be fit and energetic and fired up the generator for the first time in 2 days, running it an hour to bring the batteries up to enough charge so that they could be 100% during the afternoon and making a breakfast of fried eggs with some white bread. Then came the task of running wires from the area where I wanted to put the solar panel connectors to the solar panel control panel that I’d made. While the distance is only about 15 feet, it took me over 3 hours of intensive sweaty work to get a single line pulled through. Most of that time was spent in positions even a contortionist might refrain from attempting. I’m taking a break at the computer now, resting up before I head off to the stores to purchase the correct length of 10 gauge wire as well as some other items for the boat. The boat is a mess inside, with lots of panels and headliner boards removed to let me get access to the wire conduits.
A stop at ELECTEC for 60 feet of 10AWG cable (for the 4 solar panels) set me back $150, then trip to Budget Marine where I only wanted the two waterproof connectors ended up with a $250 bill (but now I’ve got a nice waterproof light for the dinghy as well as a replacement dimmer system for the cockpit lights and some other bits and pieces. I have no problem holding on to my cash in a casino, but somehow those chandleries and boat supply places just vacuum out my wallet; and somehow it all fits into my small backpack – unlike grocery shopping, where no matter how many bags I bring it isn’t sufficient to hold all the junk (food) I get.
For Happy Hour I joined Mark at the SMYC to watch the boats come in, and then we headed for Buccaneer’s to see the sunset, enjoy some live steel drum music (and dancing) and to have a very tasty pizza dinner. In typical cruiser fashion, or perhaps because of the the night before, I was dead by 20:00 and we headed home. Mark is on the outside of the lagoon while I’m still getting work done on the boat inside, so our dinghy paths parted ways and I’m now aboard trying to stay awake long enough to read a coupe of chapters in my current book.
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