Solar Setup

ok we've been slowly piecing our solar set up together since january. we bought the xantrex c40 charge controller, cable wires, and the 2 monster batteries when we bought our port-a-bote from some guy off craigslist. we bought our 140watt solar cynergy and MC4 cable connects in august. while my dad was out here visiting last time we started building.

my dad's idea to install fishing rod holders to feed the stainless steel rods through.

through to the bottom. bolted through.

it took me forever but i knew somewhere in my brain i'd figure it out. brackets to mount the panel onto the tops of the poles, plus you can angle them. from a satellite dish...same bracket

always helping out

cut and fit the aluminum brackets. bolted through.

everything fits

bruce gave me a piece of honduras mahogany. i cut the 30 degree angle holes through for the poles.

wood bracing shelf fits snug

gave it back to bruce and his magical hands created this beauty!

i mean come on!

uncle brian helping drill some solid bolts through the poles

real strong

attaching the MC4 cable clip connects

pretty simple thanks to youtube

yes i am a rocket scientist

mounted out of the way with plenty of ventilation

10am went to sleep at 12.6v

i drew this and here it is in real life a month later

i put hooks on the backside of the wood to hang supplies from, notice the coil of line

it's pretty much a spoiler that i can tilt forward to the angle of the metal poles or straight horizontal

hooks

DEPARTURE: south

ok everyone. we haven't been working on this boat everyday for the past 2 years for no reason. we are excited to inform everyone that we are departing for mexico in less than 2 weeks!  we are aware of hurricane paul heading up the coast. it should clear out of there by mid to end of next week, just before our departure. luckily it's 2012 and weather data is extremely high tech. and what's a little hurricane anyways when you grew up on the outer banks of north carolina, the graveyard of the atlantic?? our main goal is to book it south from dana point harbor and get through the panama canal hopefully by early 2013. it's hard to tell our itinerary because there are so many factors. we will be harbor hopping our way south down the baja peninsula, mainland mex, all of central america, then through the panama canal and north eastward into the caribbean from there. sleeping on anchor most nights. time is money and we want to keep a move on to save our precious $. we hope everyone makes our website their homepage. soon enough we shall have a GPS tracker so that you can know our location on a daily or weekly basis. by now you're saying "damn these kids are crazy stupid" well... we think you are too, everyone is... just have faith in us and wish us luck. if you would like to be of assistance, we would appreciate it more than anything right now. check out our contributions page at the top. my sister was nice enough to make us an amazon wishlist with items we may need spares of. we leave in less than 2 weeks, so if you're gunna do it, mail it now! if not, i have a paypal set up for donations of any amount. feel free to buy us a beer in mexico, or a gallon of gas, hell even just throw us a few cents for a stamp on your postcard! adios west coast, it was a grand adventure but a bigger one awaits!

my father michael sr. is flying back out here tomorrow to join us for our first big leg of the trip. he'll be with us all the way to main land mexico. probably mazatlan or puerto vallarta. my mother will be coming out for a week vacation and to check up on us around thanksgiving. my mother and father will depart together. if you would like to hop on our boat and join us for a sail around thanksgiving and christmas time feel free to send us an email!!! we will need crew, no experience needed, just the willingness to travel unscheduled.

we are not going to be apart of the baja haha. while i was first planning this adventure i thought it'd be a nice thing to join. but now that we've got 2 years under our belt. the $400 to enter is better off in our wallets. if all goes as planned, we are hoping to leave a few days before the rally of 140+ boats. if you think about it, that seems like a swarm of locusts, depleting the limited resources and jacking up the prices along the way. we are hoping the timing works out that we meet up in cabo or la paz with the fellow cruisers who are continuing southward. where we can caravan down in a safer setting.

i apologize for not so many blog updates on our latest projects, but there is just way too much going on right now to make a post every few days. i've been taking pictures and will fill in all the projects later on.