Thursday 19 Dec, West Palm Fl day 4:
This wind and rain look totally set in for the next several days. What happened to Florida’s beautiful winter weather? Despite our rental car sitting in the sailing club we really don’t have any desire to go exploring in this windy wet weather.

In the morning we hear out Hookah dive system has arrived, a 90lb box. So I head into the club on my own with the intention to get it back to the boat. But as I approach the western lee shore, where the club is, the waves are making the dinghy dock very uncomfortable. So I decide to unpack the system, checking it’s all there, then place it inside the hire car. I doubt I could safely get it into the dinghy in this choppy sea, let alone have any hope of keeping it dry on the ride back to Cloudy.
It is indeed a heavy box. Half the weight is the Honda engine and compressor and the other half the 2-one-hundred foot long breathing hoses and other accessories. Where am I going to fit that lot I wonder?

Heading back upwind to the boat is a very bumpy ride. If I go slow the waves come over the bow of the dinghy, if I go fast it’s dry but bumpy. Back at Cloudy we decide firmly to stay aboard the rest of the day.

So what job to do? Lots on the list as usual but priority is getting the internal wiring for the new solar panels completed.
First, the downstream wiring to the batteries and commissioning the 2 Mastervolt SCM25 MPPTs (solar power controllers). These devices take the volts and amps (power) from the panels and convert in the most efficient way to give best power output to the batteries. They also need to be hooked up to the masterbus so the Li-ion batteries can send a “stop-charging” demand when they are full (it’s dangerous to over-charge Li-ion batteries).
Then it’s upstream wiring through the engine room and into the cockpit locker where the wires will exit to the panels mounted on the bimini. All sounds straight forwards but I like to have it all neat and wired into conduits, so it takes me all afternoon and early evening, and leaves me quite sweaty! “Stinky” as Oana would say 🙂

In the evening we entertain ourselves with another movie as the wind howls outside. It would have been a good night for a horror movie!