The aft cabin during the wiring process.
It took close to a week, but the solar panels are now mounted and operational! The electrical cable finally came in last Wednesday afternoon, and we spent several days finding open paths to feed it through from the deck, to the space behind our bed, under the bed and flooring, into the engine room, to a breaker box, into the salon, up into a storage cabinet that's part of our dining table, into the MPPT, down again, and over to the battery box (something that's a lot more difficult and complicated than it sounds). Meanwhile, the boat was torn to bits with mattresses, tools, cushions, and floor board littering every available space and David looked like he'd been in a cat fight (and lost) because his arms were torn up from sticking them into small places and getting caught on cable ties on the way out. Now if we could just get the sun to come out, he could finish commissioning them but, according to every forecast we've read, won't happen any time soon.
We only have a few last-minute jobs left – finding a place to store the truck, buying final provisions, doing the laundry, cleaning the boat inside and out, etc. – and we can be on our way. We've been keeping an eye on the weather and, with a little luck, we should be ready to drop our lines the minute it settles and clears. Unfortunately, that's not going to be for at least a week because there's another unseasonably strong weather system approaching that's expected to bring more rain and wind.
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