Solar is the Way

Well just to update you on the Solar on Sylken Sea, we anchor out or take moorings whenever possible, we boat mostly "off grid". After 10 seasons we have 4800 hrs on the Generator, so before solar we put 400-500 hrs a season on the Genny. By converting many appliances, lighting, TV/Entertainment Centre, water maker, refrigeration etc to 12V, now with our current 1200 W of solar last season we put 56 hrs on the Genny! The only time we run it is to heat water and do laundry. Plan to bump it up to 1800W and ad some water heating capability.

More Solar

We also removed everything from the top of the Pilot House, moved the Name Boards, trying to reduce as much as possible the "shadows" on the new Solara Panels. Kirby our painter to a great job customizing the Non Skid pattern to outline the panels. I think it is very slick looking installation. The Solara panels are textured and designed to be "walk on" panels, no wires visible, light weight, no mounting brackets etc.

Shiva is a master with sealant, we just glued the panels in place.

Very good skill sets in Trinidad, these guys will build you a complete boat from scratch, just bring them your plans.

We Get a Paint Job!

At the same time as we had the hatch removed we had 90% of the topsides from the caprail on upwards painted, all the non-skid redone. It took more than 6 weeks 2-3 guys to do the prep and only a few days to actually apply the final paint. We had all the hardware removed, everything rebedded and all sealant around doors, windows, Here are some images of Sylken sea in "primer".

Hatch be Gone!

I was rather delinquent posting this last year, I'm playing catch up!

We had the boat delivered without the cockpit ladder to the boat deck, we did not think we would use it and it takes up a lot of space. The unused hatch cover on the boat deck was a pain in the behind, always collecting standing water, green slime growing in it. So.....we had it removed and glassed over, looks like it came this way from the factory!  This image shows the underside, epoxy primer ready for paint.

Hello All

We had some really cool stuff done to Sylken Sea in Trinidad, very happy with the results so we are again back at Peake Yacht Services for some more upgrades, this time a carbon fibre "Hard Top", railing modifications, pilot house door painting etc. Heading there tomorrow, promise you more updates.

Update, Testing Blogger from Android

So we have not been active for quite some time. Reason, this app would not work for us. Hoping it has been fixed.

Buccoo Bay, Tobago.

Englishman's Bay, Tobago

Cash in Trinidad and Tobago

In T&T $100 TT is approx $20 CDN, you need lots of them but the ATM will only give you $3K TT at a time. The machine must recognize we are using a NA card, must think we are American, charges $4.75 USD for the transaction (plus you will be charged an exchange fee by your bank). Guess which banks charge these rediculus fees? RBC, Scotia & CIBC Caribbean! Glad we have shares, keep sending the dividend!

Trinidad

In Trini cash is King!