GOLDEN DAYS

In my opinion there is no better place to see beautiful sunsets than from the deck of a boat. I experienced them in places all over the world. From the Maldives to the Caribbean. Including seeing the elusive Green Flash years ago in Bonaire. Surprisingly I have often been disappointed by sunsets in the Caribbean and other tropical places more often than not.  Even the ones that hold out the promise of seeing a perfect crimson  sun set beneath the horizon often end somewhat dull end behind clouds obscuring the event. It is why I appreciate that some of the best sunsets I have seen have been in my local waters from the cockpit of BIANKA. Like the awe inspiring show I saw last week while in Port Jefferson Long Island.

DEATH OF A WIND GENERATOR

My Primus  (formally Southwest Wind Power) 48 volt wind generator stop working last
year. It had been in operation 365 days a year for the past 8 years so it was probably
due for some refurbishing.  The wind generator has a sophisticated regulator circuit.
Which I imagine had failed. So sending the unit for refurbishing back to factory seemed
like a good investment.
  Unfortunately, I got some bad news along with some photos of the damage: 

“The technician was able to begin working on your unit, unfortunately we found some bad news.  Please see attached pictures. The stator in your turbine overheated which leaks the varnish from the stator throughout the entire turbine.  In these instances, the turbine is not repairable (or not worth repairing due to how much it would cost).”

After discussions with the technicians at the factory I asked how this failure occurred.
He explained that too much wind can cause this type of damage.  Though the
wind generator was advertised as having circuitry that protected it from excessive
winds obviously it failed.
Since the generator was out of warranty I was only offered at discount at purchasing
a new on which was still in the thousand-dollar range.  Even with a new 5-year warranty
the reality was there's no guarantee but the unit would not fail again once the warranty
was up. While I liked having the wind generator as part of a multi energy approach to
charging my electric propulsion battery bank. In the end I thought the cost of a new
generator was not worth it  and the money might better be spent on additional solar
panels. 

THE RIGHT PLACE, THE RIGHT TIME

Some people buy boats with dreams of traveling long distances to see the world and 
see things they don't see it home. But sometimes it's best to just stay put an experience
the area right around your home port.  This is especially true for BIANKA and I on America's
Independence Day. The 4th of July is one of my favorite days on board. Even though I never
leave the mooring.  Though I watch many other boaters heading out of the harbor on the holiday.

My day starts like this. First I make sure to fly the flag off the stern.

Then I cook up a hamburger for lunch. Meanwhile I have several chicken thighs marinating waiting their turn to be placed on the barbecue later in the day for my rum flavored BBQ chicken dinner.
I then watch nature's fireworks at sunset. Followed by man made ones as night falls. From my boats location I have fireworks displays to the left an right of me. The show goes on for an hour or two. Just a memorable way to spend the fourth and I never left the mooring.