Day 251 Blow me down!!

When we got back from out trip(about 4pm) to Sequim on Sunday, the winds were hitting into the mid-40 knot range.  There had been a weather advisory on the radio as we came back but we couldn't receive it on our car radio.  An AM frequency we couldn't get for some reason.  Apparently the winds earlier in the afternoon were even higher.  They had been clocked at Port Townsend--about 1.5 miles down the road--at 70mph!!  I'd left the DuoGen up and running while we were gone and it was spinning to beat the band.  Lots of Amps were being made for the batteries.  I lowered the unit upon our return as I didn't want to stress it more than I had to.  Matt--one of the owners of Sea Marine--had come down to the docks to help some people onto their boat that they(Sea Marine) had been working on.  An older wood boat that had a great deal of their hull replaced.  I can't imagine how much their bill was.  He commented to me when I saw him how fast the DuoGen was running during the wind storm.  

The wind started dieing down after sunset and was just about gone by midnight.  Yesterday, there was no wind all day.  Today, we are back to the winds--15-20 knots with more rain in the forecast.

While in Sequim, we bought the replacement cartridge for the galley faucet.  A Moen faucet that would only give us hot water.  Never any cold no matter where the handle was.  I checked out their website and saw how easy it was to replace the cartridge--a lot easier than changing the faucet so since no one in the local area had one, we picked up the cartridge in Sequim.  Out with the old and in with the new and now we have cold water in the galley.  Another small project done.

We picked up a Honeywell weather station while at Costco.  Our previous weather station(we've had for years) was slowly dieing and needed replacing.  This baby comes with not only a barometer, clock, and three temperature monitors--one for outside the boat, one for in the refrigerator(see how cold it is in there) and the main unit, but a anemometer(wind gauge) and a rain gauge.  With all the rain this area gets this time of year, we'll see how much it reads.  I mounted the anemometer on a board I tied to the stern rail to see what the wind is near the DuoGen.  It's actually quite a bit less than at the top of the mast.  Now it's all programmed and up and running.

A boater brought his small sailboat up a few days ago to have Sea Marine work on it.  He tied it up to another boat behind us over the weekend.  With all the wind over the last few days, it had gotten pushed under the haul out dock and it's outboard motor bracket had gotten stuck so that each time the tide went up, it was under the dock as the water rose.  It bent the bracket and if the tide had continued to rise, it could have sunk the boat.  I alerted the marina manager and he showed up a while later and Sea Marine got him all hauled out.  He got lucky.  He could have lost his boat