Day 26, Year 5: Tense Jobs, Tedious Jobs
Date: Saturday, November 21, 2009
Weather: Totally Overcast with Sprinkles
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
This was a day where our different jobs gave us different views of the day. For Mark, this was a tense day. Last year when re-installing the Air-X wind generator he got the wires crossed and blew the circuits in the generator’s control board. While we were home he ordered repair parts that also amounted to an upgrade. We waited for months while the special order was filled. We received it only a few days before we left Massachusetts headed for North Carolina. Today Mark finally found the time (and the courage) to install the upgrade. He checked and re-checked the wiring. He was really tense as we began the tests. The first test went well. The second test required hooking it up to the batteries. When we did the test, the LED didn’t blink like it was supposed to. His heart sank. He decided to test each component in the system and found that the ammeter was not working. We did the test again by-passing the ammeter and the LED blinked! Success! After cleaning the ammeter terminals, it too worked So now the “new” wind generator has passed all the tests except the final and most critical one: Will it generate electricity when the wind blows?
Judy, on the other hand, spent the day re-naming logs in year 3 that really should have been in year 4. This is a long and tedious process. Add to that the fact that for every log that is renamed, the associated pictures also have to be renamed. This was not a banner day for her. And then Mark burned out the motor on the little Kirby DC powered hand vacuum that is almost as good as nothing, but when you have nothing better, something is better than nothing. We have two sets of plugs everywhere in the boat: one for 110 volt AC and one for 12 volt DC. If you plug a DC applicance into an AC plug, it is no more! And we are truly vacuum-less.
We did have a nice surprise this morning. Mark’s nieces and nephews were gathered in Gainsville, Florida to watch the ‘Gators play. They called on Skype and we had great fun talking with them. Go ‘Gators, go.
We got an email from our friends Tina and Robert of Shirena today. They have been visiting family in Australia and were supposed to be back on Tuesday. But Tina’s passport was sent away to get a UK visa and it has not been returned. So Robert will probably return on Tuesday, followed by Tina when her passport is returned. We are anxious for them to return so we can talk about plans for the upcoming cruising season. They are headed our way and we would like to connect with them as we travel. Hopefully Tina will be back before we leave for Thailand, but if not, we will just have to catch up there.
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| 091121 Day 26 Malaysia–Wind Generator Installation |
