Well the plan had always been to sail south to avoid any hurricanes so this morning at breakfast when discussing the latest weather we decided to do just that. the 8am email came in with a 60% chance of a tropical cyclone forming in the next 48 hours and a prediction it would hit the south part of the leeward islands the same time. we decided to head south to St George Grenada, about 35 nm south of us. Waka Iere had a brief debate about “hunkering down in the mangroves” vs heading south but decided to do the same thing as us. i have never understood why you would knowingly stay in the path of a hurricane when you can move 100 to 150nm a day and with two days notice be well out of its way unless the forecast is way off. i would also much rather be at sea in a huricana as at least you don’t have to contend with going up on shore or being hit by other poorly moored boats.
in any case we got under way right after breakfast for a very nice motor/ sail down to st george. of course we had to run the motor a bit and reduce the fridge temps to make up for the lack of genset. i did send out an email asking about a replacement kabutoa motor. i got back 3 weeks and $4500 US payable in advance. this is a none starter. we are looking at wind and more efficient/less fridge options. the siplest thing is to get rid of the front loader that draws 7.7 amps and is badly ventilated but then we give up both frash vegies and ice. not very apealing!
i got some weather along the way by pointing the directional wifi antenna at places that looked populated. we where 2nm off shore and this still worked remarkable well and confirmed our plans as our weather system had been officially named “tropical depression 5”
we anchored in early afternoon and got online to look for gensets, wind generators and fridges. still not coherent plan. waka irei arrived just before sunset and they rowed over in their half deflated dingy. aimee has promised them they can borrow cuba libre’ while they wait on a replacement dingy order but they have not ordered or taken us up yet. the happy hour was a good distraction from genset woes but we made it an early night as we want to move to a more protected anchorage tomorrow.
cheers roger
I would be consolidating the fridges down to one fridge, and might have to do laundry elsewhere (can you just wash and not dry the clothes?, then hang outside). The fridges probably use the most power.
hi catherine, good to here from you. palapa, alas, has no washer or dryer (unless you count aimee). she normally hand washes everything except towels and sheets so w/o guests we dont have much laundry.
we have added ventelation and a ton of insulation to two of the fridges and another solar panel. stay tuned for some blog updates on this. not sure if this will be sufficient as it has rained the last week!
cheers roger