Beach Day
Tuesday January 19, 2021
It seemed quite breezy this morning but we elected to go to the beach anyway. We had two options for how to get there. We could take the dinghy along Sisters Creek and emerge at Sombrero Beach. Alternatively, we could bike along Route 1 to Sombrero Beach Road and take that to the beach. We chose to cycle, largely because it’s such a struggle for us to beach our dinghy when we have the outboard motor attached. The cycle ride went smoothly, powered by a quick stop at the taco truck for lunch. The beach is gorgeous. Somewhat to my surprise there were quite a lot of people on the beach. We paddled our feet and sat down on the sand for a while. I’m shocked to report that once seated, I quickly became too hot and had to go find shade in the park behind the beach. My excuse is that the small dunes behind the beach were blocking out the breeze, while the sun was beating down. Also we are idiots because we didn't think to bring swim suits, towels, books etc. While we were lounging in the park, we heard the ice cream truck! Just like little kids, we had to have an ice cream. We cycled back to Route 1 into the teeth of the wind. It’s pretty flat in Florida but cycling into a stiff breeze seems like going uphill.
Back on Cotinga, Mike went back to trying to figure out what is up with our solar panel. The advice we got suggests that we should see a voltage jump on the batteries when the solar panel is connected to the system. Mike was able to determine that the panel is producing something around 24V but the output from the voltage regulator does not significantly alter the voltage on the batteries. Today’s conclusion is that the voltage regulator is not doing what it should or it’s smarter than we give it crdit for and it realizes our batteries are fully charged. My only role was to keep the volt-meter at the ready and make the readings. I wish I had more of an understanding of electricity, I’m not sure how I missed learning this in all those years of education. Perhaps that’s the difference between practical, useful education and esoteric theory (like quantum mechanics!)
Gloria
24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W
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