Power Who needs power you say?

No power on a boat would be fine if it were not our navigation system.  I love how we have it all set up right now. i love our chartplotter - how did I every live without it? I love the AIS how did I live without it? But now if there is no power then it would be a pain to navigate through rocks/shallows/buoys etc... it is crucial.

It seems we have a phantom power sucking drain on our system.  no one can find it.  Well Steve our new electrician says he found it but I doubt it cuz here is why...

Ok he says all things lead to a bad Alternator (which could be try cuz our past owner had not one but two alternators on board - sound fishy to you, why would you have two new ones? He had the "new" one that comes with the engine and he had about a new Balmar alternator the big Daddy of all alternators!!!)

there is a hummmm, that baby makes and it could be draining the battery cuz if we use it or not our house still gets drained.  But here is the weird thing.  So he said just shut off the alternator fuse so there fore NO power can be drained from the alternator (which by the way is turned off so how does it drain if it is off - i did ask that questions a few times and it got a silly dumb look so I knew it was a dumb question - but maybe not?)

so if it is off our house still gets drained.  I think it might lead back to the old ancient "heart" system that our inverter from AD/DC thingie. Cuz when that is on ... well it drains.

So here we have new batteries... and still they drain!!! So we left Mystic anyway. Our batteries still last the same as before one or two days depending how much we use our navigation system.

So today we left and motored for a while to fill up the batteries. Then ben hopped in the water to get our water speed wheel to work.  it is under the belly of the boat. it was windy and wavey. I said ok if he wears a rope tied on.  He has to follow those rules that is when I pull the captain trump card. so it was a good thing too cuz the boat does not move half has fast at the current would carry him.  it was hard for him to get under the boat cuz the current would have him ending up 8 feet behind where he wanted to be.

He flipped the wheel once.  came up and did not go back in. (strange, that did not seem like enough time) we started and welp the wheel was still stuck.  But this time I knew why he did not go back in.  Ben get seasick in waves.  Yup it was too late and he was barfing over the edge. now you all are saying poor guy.... Me too.. and I have to add poor me... cuz who drive the boat for the next 6 hours? by her self in 20 knot winds?

It was ok until the winds hit 20k then the sail configuration is too much and I fight with the wheel.  literally fight to keep us down wind cuz the boat wants to gallop and bounce into wind. she bucks and I pull hard... well then I tried the auto helm (electric one) so I could adjust my sails and no luck it would not hold a course ??? What??? no way!!!! now I'm at 22 winds and I can't hold it anymore.  I yell down, 'BEN, I need help soon!" He popped up fast and grabbed the wheel so I could set the sails differently.  Then I said, it is too much wind for the jib let's switch to the staysail.  (I love the staysail it is a shorty sail that is self sheeting - "self steering", and I can pull the sheets from the cockpit so I don't have to leave. plus I did not have the jack line run.)

So Ben was feeling good enough to set the staysail! phew! I love the main with the staysail.  I'll have to take pictures sometime.

then Ben took Dramamine - he likes to wait - then went back down for the day.  it was 20 knots but I was perfectly fine just tired. and mad about the autohelm??? then the cape horn (non-electric autohelm) Ben dropped the bungie cord in the water so we put a rope and the rope just does not want to hold.  So I jerry - rigged it for a while.  then I put my harness and tether on so not to fly off the back end while Ben is sleeping, and it worked for a while enough to give me a break for the day.

needless to say I'm beat! tomorrow is martha vineyard but it will also be the first day we will travel in storm predictions.  the winds are SW 5-10 so that is good if they were north winds I'd say no-way! that is why we will sit there for two night as the NE winds will come in then leave.

I'm almost out of batteries for the computer, Ben is sleeping on the settie.

Time for BED!
zzzzz
bless you all!