Friday, February 15, 2013

SOLAR POWER

The deed is done!  On Monday, we rented a mini-van and off we went on a two and a half hour trek to Fort Lauderdale to E Marine Inc. to purchase solar panels. It was quite a straightforward shot from here, and since we are still in the dark ages and don't own a GPS for land, we had to navigate just like the old days, well post paper maps anyway.....Yahoo maps are THE BEST!!  The little teeny tiny store we were aimed for was right in the heart of Marnia Mile in Lauderdale....every conceivable type of marine service shop and
parts distributors with a very off the beaten track Race Boat place filled with a lot full of very large Offshore race boats on trailers must have been headed for the Miami Boat Show, which is this weekend.

But I digress, we were happy to find out that we had chosen the right place to get our solar panels.  Bob the manager was very knowledgeable and had everything we needed (at a good price) to get our set up going.  We purchased two 215 Watt Solar Panels and built a temporary frame out of  2x4's to make sure they that two are going to give us the power we need.  Bob felt sure it would, so we are hoping he is right. Getting them to the boat via dinghy was interesting. 
Couldn't leave Bob home on our 'road trip'....no we're not crazy....much

Rocket Man.....Islamorada...jet pack propelled by water.


Offshore race boat 'Broken Arrow'  one of about 8 boats at this shop  

One of the 'twins'

TEMPORARY!!  Frame


Attaching the first panel

Positioning the frame supports...they are attached to the bridge top support

Our hope for a powered  life aboard.

Just a little redneck....

On the wall and getting "juiced"!

 Even better news came the next day when a spot freed up on the Marina wall and we got a spot to charge our batteries.  It took eight hours and they are loving it.  It was like giving them an energy drink!

The panel install went pretty smoothly.  Gary had it all figured out in his head (although he didn't necessarily give this information freely to me, so as usual I had too many questions) and we had the solar panels up in one afternoon and he had them operational by early afternoon the next day.  It was very sunny when he got them hooked up and they were rockin'....then the clouds came and we haven't had sun since although they still give us a little boost.

 Last night we had dinner with Bob & Sandra and their darling little dog, Maddie. They have lived on their sailboat 'Carpe Diem' for 15 years.  Maddie is new to boating and  she is a hoot. We were her BFF's in a matter of minutes.!


Sandra served a wonderful shrimp dish for dinner and we had a very interesting conversation about their knowledge of Maine and the East Coast.  We are thinking of possibly heading that way and took all the inside information we could get. :-)
Maddie is a Coton de Tulear and she is turning into a great boat dog.




Today we are waiting for Cory and Jessica to arrive with our truck.  Then we will have wheels to pick up Meredith on Tuesday in Key West and will be much more mobile.  Although we have been so busy fixing things on the old girl that we haven't had much time to do any exploring.  All of our other issues are still waiting for us, (by Us, of course I mean Gary) and will be taken in the order of necessity.














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