Nasty weather

The sky this morning…, kind of spooky eah?

There are no hurricanes in Panama but they do come close, not too close though :) I’m sure I’ll be feeling the effects of Thomas in the next few days. If the swell comes from the WNW getting to shore is impossible and I’ll be stuck on the boat for a few days. I can already feel that the squalls have a bit more umph to them!

I’ve been in solid writing mode for the past three days and have finally lit a fire under my ass to finish a book that I have been toying with for the past 5 years.

I’m going to release it as an eBook and hopefully have it available for download in the next three or four months. I’m looking for some help on the book as my grammar is obviously poor and I’d like some insight. I have a few friends in mind but if anyone has experience with story editing, id be open to a conversation.

Also if anyone has experience building electronics I want to build a DC voltage regulator to regulate the dc load to the field wire on my alternators. I found a good site with instructions to do this but I’m not so good with this sort of thing. I’m wondering if there is a radio shack equivalent in Panama city? If I cant build one I’m going to go with the Pro regulator D. from Sterling power. I also found one at Ample Power but at $449.00 its WAY out of my price range. I had one from Ballmar on Namaste but had to replace it after a few years. The good thing about the one from sterling is it comes with a 2 year warrantee, a good sign.

My little kubota is in place and running well. As you can see from the picture I’ve installed it in my  port lazerette. I had  to build the bracket for the alternator which includes the small shelf above the starter The shelf is for an impeller pump as soon as I can find a deal on one, for the moment I’m using an electric impeller pump that is down in the engine room pushing raw water up and through the heat exchanger. once I mount the impeller pump on the motor I’ll get a longer belt and tension it off of the alternator. There is another v-groove on the flywheel which will go to the refrigerator compressor, and the water maker pump will run off of the extra pulley on the refrigerator compressors 12v clutch. Once I get everything hooked up and working well I’m going to rip it all out of the lazerette, scrape, paint, and build an enclosure for it which I will soundproof with a home made soundproofing. I’m going to sandwich linoleum and sheet steel between two layers of foam, and finish everything off in diamond plate. I want to be able to run this thing and not hear it. It is pretty quiet to start with and think once the project is done it will be near silent.

I’m contemplating installing a hydraulic pump on the kubota and running everything hydraulically. Eventually I’m going to get rid of my transmission on the Perkins and run the shaft off of a hydraulic motor as well. Its a bit of a longer range plan.

All is well and life is good. I have a friend coming in a few weeks and we are going to head off for the San Blas for a while. I’m looking forward to getting back out there. I have some new charts for the central hollandaise that my buddy just made. I’m psyched about exploring some new reefs and anchorages. I hope to have him build me a system before I leave so I can make charts as i travel.

Anyway, I hope the big wind doesn’t head up your way or do much damage.

Cheers.

Sail far and live slowly.

Alex

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