Quest for Power - part 3

It’s a blustery, sunshine and showers day, back in the Medway.

I’m reading in the back garden. Waiting for a courier to arrive with Stargazer’s new solar panels. A “hello” from the, open, back gate is followed by a frenzy of unwrapping.

I hurry down to Stargazer, to see how they fit. The 25W panel sits neatly between windscreen and cabin skylights, as hoped. It feels happy to bend to match the convexity of the deck . And, best of all, the cable exits from the port side top edge of the rectangular panel - the most convenient side to hardwire it in  from.

The folding panel is a perfect fit between the grab rails on the forward cabin top. Ideal for lashing it in position. The panels, mounted in their robust fabric carrier, are self supporting. I don’t think we’ll need to fit batten pockets after all . Just replace the four corner Tenax fasteners with eyelets - to provide lashing points.

My parcel included professional, steel sprung, rubberised edge protector strip - with which to freshen up Stargazer’s faithful 50W roving panel.

I duck under the cover of the spray hood, as a rain shower passes through, to fit it.

Teresa, MD of Marlec, (who supplied the panels) let me into the secret of how to apply the edge strip. Starting in the middle of the long side, gently tap it on - using a rubber mallet. And keep plenty of tension on at the corners. 

One pot of coffee and a rain shower later, the panel is looking better than new. Split hose was originally used to edge it by Goblin’s commissioning crew, all those years ago.

The rain clears . I rig the refurbished panel and admire our deck-full of (mostly) roving solar. A full 150W. With room, just about, to add a second 50W panel, to take us to the magic 200W - if we need to, in the future . The controller is specced to take it . And I’m having an additional deck plug fitted, just in case.

We’re almost ready to get off - somewhere, anywhere that will have us! While we wait for further unlocking, we’ll prowl the East Coast anchorages . First, however, to get the fixed panel and controller fitted, cabin light bulbs swapped for LED’s and the folding panel eyeletted.

PS: I’ve written this blog on my phone, using the Blogger App - as a trial.

When I blogged daily from Stargazer’s Biscay, Scilly and Irish cruises I used Blogpress, on my phone - until the photos stopped (retrospectively) displaying. You may have noticed the problem on some older posts but not others? The ones with photos were written on PC . The ones with missing photos on Blogpress.

With no way to keep up with a lap top’s power demands at anchor, the phone App is the only way to Blog regularly on passage - so, with a summer of cruising (hopefully) in prospect, I thought it was time for another try. 

Please let me know, in the comments, how you find it.