The Generator Goes AWOL

Well our luck didn’t hold. We heard from Jose-Luis (sorry inverted the name in the last post) and the generator he was trying to get for Bill had sold. Turtlebones’ old generator was a 5 Kilowatt, meaning it could generate 5000 watts of power to top up the batteries in an hour. Jose-Luis found an alternative in La Paz (over on the Baja) which is 9 kw – so more powerful than we need and it will take a week (price still unknown) and another new model Bill is familiar with but multiple weeks for delivery. We had discussed a go date of Monday assuming it could not be delivered by this week, but of course the tradeoffs get more tricky if it would be here by Wednesday next week.

Turtlebones does have a small gas powered Honda generator we can use in a pinch. The challenge is there will be no alternatives between here and New Zealand. We continue to wait for clarity.

The trade offs are how the winds change each day we delay. In the image above (from PredictWind), it shows 4 possible paths and timing (mostly similar) we we left tonight, or we can run it if we left Saturday, or next Wednesday. Today is obviously not possible regardless (we still have issues with the Iridium satellite system being activated), but we would arrive into the Marquesas anywhere from March 29 to April 2nd (so 21 to 26 days). If we leave Saturday it changes add 3 days. If we leave next Wednesday the elapsed time is less and all 4 wind models come in within a day or 2. On the map you can see Hawaii in the upper left and our destination for the first leg where the boats are showing.

We made headway in some areas – Sharon had picked up hydrophone to record whales and other marine life as we travel, and we managed to install some audio software on computers and did a couple test recordings here in the harbour. We think we have figured out our to record, transfer files and listen/view them on the computer. This will be really cool even if we do not have a clue what we are listening to!

A call out to Greg Keen who tried to give me some training on “flying drones” before I left Toronto. I managed to figure how to “unlock it” here in Puerta Vallarta as we are in a semi-restricted area because of the airport. I crashed twice while trying to take off, but into the sand so no damage other than to my ego. More one drones another time.

We also decided to see if we could download a few movies or documentaries for entertainment using Netflix or Prime. The theory is good but the wifi here in the marina is very slow. We figure we could get a movie or two unless someone camps out in the “lounge” and spends hours downloading.

So another day, busy but slow, as we wait for a clean set of circumstances to allow the departure.