American Spirit II - Day 4; Waiting for the Weather to Clear; Tuesday, January 7, 2014

No sun today. Still swinging and bouncing at anchor. Wind still howling. Wind speed still up. Blowing 28 knots this morning. Sounds higher in gusts, but no one on board will volunteer to go into the cockpit to check. I can't figure out why. Only 1 boat in and out of the anchorage has left. A fishing boat in the afternoon. Bound for Cuba? In the 50's. Cold.

The day was spent receiving weather faxes; sending and receiving email; reading; writing boat logs; and waiting to get under way. The plan is to weigh anchor Thursday morning en route to the Yucatan Straight, crossing the Gulf Stream (not fun) and turning left at the western tip of Cuba (yeah!), leaving the Gulf of Mexico behind and entering the Caribbean Sea. Before turning south for Panama we need to go east to Longitude 79 (San Blas Islands) or 80 (Shelter Bay). Longitude is one of those lines you see on a world chart of globe, and run from one pole to another.

Since this is a 'slow' log day, I'll spend some time talking about boat systems for the non-boater readers. Today's topic, generating electricity. Doing so on a sail boat is very necessary and one of the most critical activities that need to occur when sailing. On American Spirit II we currently have 4 ways of making electricity: Diesel Engine(Yanmar 54); Diesel Onan 5 KW Generator; Watt & Sea Hydro Generator; and KISS Wind Turbine. We don't have any Solar (yet). Joel and I are still debating that one. The Hydro Generator supplies the energy we need while sailing; and is a device attached to our transom with a propeller on it. Our movement thru the water when sailing via wind power turns this propeller. That generates, ultimately, what we need to charge our boat (Main House) battery banks (we have 2). The Hydro Generator so far has worked as advertised. At 6 knots of boat speed we have all the energy generation we need. Once we anchor, the Wind Turbine will supply the energy we need to run the boat systems. Like the giant wind turbines you see throughout the country and world, this device charges our batteries when we're anchored, as long as the wind is blowing. However, it currently isn't working. We suspect that we blew a diode or controller (too technical to explain now) and will rectify the matter in Panama. A new diode and controller will be delivered to the boat by David Fox, who joins us there with Paul Fox on January 23, for the Panama Canal Transit. I'll explain in tomorrow's log why we think the Wind Turbine isn't working.