Green Power

We've just completed one of our most important system upgrades; three 160 watt solar panels that will give us a total of 480 watts of solar capacity.  We're hoping that will be enough to power our daily needs such as; navigation, communication, lights, auto helm and our fridge. On the demand side our electronics & auto helm are new, lower energy use designs, our lights are mostly LEDs and our fridge seems well insulated for a boat. 

Before this we had to run the engine for 2 hours a day, while sailing in order to supply enough electricity for everything minus the fridge.  That's a waste of fuel and engine life plus it harshes the mellow of sailing.  Malo is a beautiful sailor so it's especially wasteful to be using her engine when it's not needed for propulsion.  

Power on a boat is all about balancing needs with supply.  The better we can do that, the easer our sailing life will be.  It's also a good lesson for our land based life too and has got me thinking about solar power for home.  Hello Elon...  But that's for some future time.  Right now we've got our hands full prepping for Malo for our tip to Mexico that will start in just two months from now.  We've got our hands full on that account.  Sometime in the next few days we have over 700' of line coming from the factory that we'll use to replace much of Malo's running rigging.  We also have a lot of small, but essential things to do, in order to get us all set for departure.   

One of the very pleasurable things we did recently was to put the jib sail back on.  We had taken it off at the end of last summer in order to wash, inspect and repair it.  It's a smallish jib, just 105% but it works well with svelte Malo and I'm counting on it's small size being balanced off nicely by the new code 1 gennicker we had made last winter.  

At the suggestion of a sailor who has recently returned from a cruise of the west cost of Mexico I painted our outboard motor in a unique way in order to dissuade theft.  We'll also lock it but I figured that a belt & suspenders approach would be best.   Our dinghy and it's motor are a vital part of our boating equipment so we'd hate to loose either of them in the midst of our cruise.  

Sailing While Old

I started sailing when I was very young and learned it in the natural way that kids pick up things that is more intuitive and analytical.  I also learned it in a young supple body.  Now, over half a century later the old bod is anything but supple.  I still take an intuitive and relaxed approach to sailing but I also tend to think about it more too.  No only the what and how of it all but also I can’t help pondering the why of it too.  Why sail in the time of powerboats, cars and planes.  Part of it is nostalgia and part of it is environmentally correct and interesting it’s still the most effecting way to move a moderate boat around the planet which upon reflecting upon how far we’ve come, all the way from the days of the horse & buggy to the age of jets and computers, it’s remarkable that something as antiquated as sailing can still be revilement and efficient.  Beyond that it’s also quite, relaxing and deliciously slow in these loud and high-speed times.  

Nostalgia aside, it’s a lot harder to sail in this old body of mine.  Arthritis, tendonitis, weekend muscles and a general tightening of my whole body combined with detecting eyesight, hearing and memory.  All part and parcel with growing old.  I’m just hoping that experience, patience and guile will help make up for enough of what has been lost to get by.  On the up side partying is a lot less expensive, a couple of Ibuprofen and a few Tylenols is all it takes now-a-days and it’s legal.  I really don’t know if that good or sad or both.  It is what it is, I suppose. 

I’ve also got a few tricks up my sleeve such as taping the joints that ache, I also have given up coffee which surprisingly helps night watches in that I go to sleep quicker, sleep better and wake up clearer that when I use to imbibe.  Sometimes it’s the little thing that can make all the difference, like napping.

I’ve switched to all aluminum anchors (one Spade and two Fortresses) that makes for easer ground tackle handling.  I’ve also chose a smaller, lighter boat than my last two which means much lighter sail handling loads.  Economy of scale.  So hopefully with good luck and the grace of god we’ll do ok.  That’s as much a prayer as it is a wish.