Wow. I like sailing. I forgot this is a sailboat… Felt great to get out for a little romp in Biscayne Bay. Aaron, a fellow S.E.A. alum and CJ came out for an afternoon-into-evening sail complete with chips, salsa, a few root beers and some Double Stuffs. We sailed over to Stiltsville, an old prohibition era community of houses built on stilts in the eastern shallows of Biscayne Bay.

Elizabeth is nearly ready for the upcoming trip to the Bahamas and ultimately back to Marthas Vineyard. I have been a busy drone the past few weeks… Installed a new house bank. Three new Group 31′s. I knew it was time for new batteries when the resting voltage read 12.4 volts but as soon as a load was added, it dropped to 10.6 volts. Useless. But before buying the new batteries, I wanted to be sure I had adequate charging capabilities. I found a skinny solar panel, that fits on the rail pretty smartly. It’s rated at 65 watts, or more importantly, 3.8 amps. This brings my total solar potential up to 145 watts. In conjunction with the wind generator, on a sunny day with 12 knots of breeze, I should be making about 13 amps.

I loaded aboard a few non perishables, and found places to stow it all. Seems there’s plenty of room aboard Elizabeth for both food and my extensive bosun’s stores. I’ve finally finished the head rebuild now that the last remaining part has arrived… good ole part #1203BW. This solved the leaky intake valve problem. The pump out hoses are nearly complete, just waiting on a very sexy 90º elbow I really like. No more wheel-squeelin’ corners for the poop to make, it’ll be like riding the poop-louge, fast and fun, minimizing potentially crusty, stanky build up. In building out this new plumbing system, I found the ABA hose clamps to be superior. They’re 100% 316 SS and non-perforated, the only way to go.