Just Another Day

We were having our morning coffee when I looked back and noticed the two smaller solar panels were not there! I asked Trinda if she had seen them lately, but she didn't really remember. They were held on with hose clamps, since 2000 in San Diego. Sure enough half of one hose clamp was still there. The wind was strong a while last night. It must have been too much for them. The stainless clamps had rusted through!

We are anchored in only 12 feet of water, but it is never very clear. So we suited up and started snorkeling. Liz on Swell noticed us and swam over too. She had been cleaning her boat bottom. She helped a lot, she found them and even got a rope tied on them before I could get back in the water. These kids are better at holding their breath than us old folks!

Trinda had been trimming the cabbage we've had since Hawaii, and threw her favorite knife over with the peels, while I was getting my suit on to look for the panels. I didn't find it. The visibility was only about 2 feet here this morning.

After I got the panels up and rinsed them off, I noticed the inverter was flashing an error code. I started checking it. I had to take out all the canned food from 3 shelves, unscrew 2 shelves and take out the inverter to just get the lid open to look. I didn't find anything obvious! Darn! I then turned it back on and measured the volts. Only 96 volts. That was the cause of the error code. Well, the only thing we have that has to have the inverter is the computer. All the power tools and Trinda's
cake mixer can live without being used if they have too. I checked the power adapter for the computer and it says it is good from 100 to 240 volts, so we'll limp along for a while.

We may have to stay here another few weeks to order a backup inverter. The Kwai supply ship is planning on leaving Hawaii on May 28 for the next trip here. That would make us miss getting to Samoa for the June 28th trip to Seattle...