Passing time,position and power.

It's been another busy week here...

Tomato harvest is in full swing. As the weather has warmed up the starboard side(sunny) plant has started to look a little weary. Browning leaves, droopy branches. As the fruit starts to colour some of the skins have been splitting. So as soon as the slightest touch of yellowing appears I am picking these fruit to finish ripening below decks. That seems to be working fine. The port side(shade) is still growing well and the tomatoes there are far superior, must have a natural left tendency!

TBH's book has finally arrived, well the first consignment, in the UK. This week sees the review copies being dispatched all over the world. Amazing.

Mike(Dragonheart) gave TBH his old celesticomp calculator last week. It had stopped working and he said he didn't use it anyway, so TBH was welcome to see if he could get it going again... This is the wonderful electronic gizmo that works out the figures taken by sextant so you can find your position. Well to his delight he managed to find the right batteries in Puerto Barrios and it is up and running. Now all we need is a horizon to check the thing on....might be a week or so till we are in that position.

We seem to be a pretty rare boat these days with such a lack of electronic aids on the boat. We still use papercharts, no chart plotter. Although we do have electronic charts on the computer. Most of our navigation is done with paper charts and the GPS but we feel we ought to brush up our sextant skills, you never know!

We have no generator so power usage is always an issue. No freezer, no microwave, no TV. We even still have functioning paraffin lights! Our refrigerator is engine driven which does mean we run the main engine for 30 minutes EVERY day. It can seem a pain but on the positive side that means we also get sufficient hot water for 24 hours and early warning when there is an engine problem!

No solar panels just a wind generator.

I was asked recently what I most missed about no longer living on the land. You know it was a tough question! Maybe a washing machine? But when I thought about it there is a certain sense of satisfaction in a bucket and washing dolly! Then when things get too bad its usually possible to get the laundry done ashore! Now that is a luxury.

Do I miss a dishwasher? Nope.
Freezer? Nope.

I have a massive galley, two heads(one more than we had on land!), comfortable bed and a great friend to share the adventure with.

That's enough ...