We had a list of boat jobs (never run out of boat jobs!) that we needed to get done before the first of the year and before our next major passage coming up. Such as installing extensions to the tracks for sliding sheet blocks up the toe rail - the tracks we have been carrying since leaving Canada!
Another job was adding a solar panel. We were amazed to find how the price of these has come down. We bought an 80-watt monocrystalline for about $100 CAD. We paid 7 times that for each of the 2 we have had since leaving home in 2009. The third one has really made a big difference in pumping lots of amps for our hungry batteries. Other jobs were also attended to like a repair to the head sail to make it last to the Mediterranean.
More power!
We discovered that our HF (Ham) radio was kaput so began an interesting search for a replacement. It turns out that Thailand import restrictions make it almost impossible to not only own or operate one in the country but ordering one sent in is essentially restricted. So we are now trying to get one sent to Langkawi Malaysia with the possibility of getting it on a yacht coming this way (HF radios coming in on yachts are overlooked by Thai Customs).
We had been wondering how Chanty would handle swimming in the event she fell in. Well one day she was in the dinghy with Jordan checking it out and got nervous when the dinghy started to drift away a bit from Sea Turtle. Unfortunately, she misjudged the leap (flexible dinghy pontoons are not a good solid base to spring from) and came up short. Splash into the water she went!
It was interesting to see that she started to swim in a circle around the boat and stayed very close to it, looking for a way up. When Jordan caught up to her in the dinghy, she frantically climbed into it on her own. Next was a quick freshwater shower which she also hated!
Now we have a plastic mesh hanging off the stern of Sea Turtle and into the water that she can climb up if she is ever overboard again.
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