Puerto Rico (continued)

Old San Juan Forts

When you are cruising and find yourself near a big city, it's a good chance to go to the doctor.  Mark had noticed a small spot on his neck that looked suspect, so he phoned around and finally got an appointment.  After leaving the dermatologist with a clean bill of health, we headed to tour the historic Castillo San Cristobal fort, which took Spain nearly 400 years to complete.  

Of all the forts we’ve seen along the way, this was the most impressive in size.  It is one of the National Parks in the US, so the kids took the opportunity to earn another Junior Ranger badge.  We learned about how vital Puerto Rico was in the days of exploration.

It is named Puerto Rico because it is literally the “gateway to riches”, the first stop for ships coming from Europe to seek the precious gems and metals in Mexico and South America.  The deep waters surrounding it, allowed ships to come close to shore, and the lush land provided fresh drinking water after a long journey.  We had fun imagining the Santa Maria sailing into the port, with Christopher Columbus shouting, “Land, HO!”

Santa Maria model boat

Listening to Ranger and working on earning badges!

Fort under siege!

One more badge for our collection!

EL YUNQUE NATIONAL FOREST

On the East side of Puerto Rico, it is an immense tropical forest, the only rainforest in the United States National Forest system.  It was a magical place of tiny treasures.  The kids learned so much about the varied animals and plants of a rainforest, and enjoyed finding lizards, spiders, snails, birds, and butterflies.  I am always amazed at what their little eyes can spot!

The forest is also littered with waterfalls, ferns, palm trees, orchids, and bromeliads.  We learned how important the structure and strength of the rainforest is for the entire island of Puerto Rico.  It acts as a buffer for hurricanes that pass through the area, taking much of the blow.

Scene from the top of our hike

Learning about nature's umbrellas!

This dragonfly posed for many portraits as we tried to master the "macro" setting on our new camera!

Feeling different leaf textures - this one felt like thick vinyl!

Where the Red Fern Grows - just had to share this with all my literary friends!

Asking the ranger about all the sounds we'd heard along the way - doing our best impressions

Looked like a tree from a magical world

Sweet little lizard the kids spotted, camouflaged among the branches

Tiniest Orchid in world

CULEBRA ISLAND

North of Vieques, a smaller island of the Spanish Virgin Islands, surrounded by many small islands and rocks.  We tucked into one of the bays, joining another Antares, s/v Bella Luna, with our friends Gordon and Debbie on board!  We had never seen their boat finished, but we had spent much time with them in preparation.  It was a lot of fun to see them and step onto a boat just like ours!

The next day we hiked over to Flamenco Beach on the northern side.  This beach was rated #1 beach in the US by the Discovery Channel, and for good reason.  The white sands seem to go on for miles and there is plenty of room along the shallows to wade or play.

Vendors are offering umbrellas and beach chairs, and just behind the beach are huts set up with food, drinks, sunscreen, floats, and anything else you could possibly need for a day at the beach.  We realized that we don’t often get to be on a beach with big waves, because that would mean we’d be by a lee shore and run the risk of dragging onto shore (not something we’d like to experience).  Elizabeth and Michael had a blast being knocked over by the surf.  Meanwhile, Mark ventured out into the big rollers and got tossed around pretty good, slamming his shoulder hard onto the bottom before surrendering.

Food and Beach Sundries Vendors

Beach Blanket Date! 

Surfing the waves!

Playing on Beach Culebra

Fellow Antares owners Gord and Debbie Moon of s/v Bella Luna

Bay we anchored in on the opposite side of the island

Moon over Culebra

Playing "pass the sunglasses" with s/v Bella Luna!

I could have spent all season in Puerto Rico.  I even told Mark, “I could move here.”  It was a beautiful place with such a varied landscape and rich culture, plus it has Costco… who could ask for more?

Flamenco Beach Family Portrait

This is a video of our trip to Puerto Rico.  Enjoy!

Gateway to Riches

When we reached Puerto Rico, our first stop was Mayaguez on the west coast to check in with Customs and Immigration.  The two officers who greeted us were by far the kindest we’d ever come across.  They filled us in on where things were and told the children everything they 'must see' while in Puerto Rico. 

When we were ready to venture out, they even had a taxi called for us and warned us not to pay over $8.  The dock where we had to disembark from our dinghy, however, was far from the nicest we’d encountered.  Along the cement wall were huge, black fenders, which left their mark on anything that touched them.  By the time we’d crawled up the wall and fenders (there was no ladder), we each had nice black smears along our elbows and knees.  The dinghy itself, after sitting there for half a day, also got a handsome black mustache along its entire bow.  The officers felt bad, saying, “We’ve told them we need a ladder here for a long time, but they haven’t built one.”  Gotta love government prioritizing...

Note the huge, black fender of death

Cool jellyfish that floated by while we waited for Mark to finish paperwork.

We felt like we’d hit the jackpot when the cab pulled into a strip mall, complete with Kmart, Sam’s, and a movie theater!! 

It was a huge treat to see a movie while it was still in the theater, so we made it a point to make the 1:30 showing of The Croods (in English with Spanish subtitles).  Most people in Puerto Rico speak very fluent English, so it was a fun middle ground for me.  I could eavesdrop and practice translating, but still communicate easily.   Many times, I would begin a conversation in Spanish, and they would switch to English automatically.  I’m not sure if they were saving me from my rudimentary Spanish, or wanting to practice their English.  The former, I’m sure!

There were many things to see and do while in Puerto Rico.  It is a beautiful country.  As we moved along the south coast, we visited Boqueron, Guilligan’s Island, Isla de Muertos, and Salinas.  We also rented a car and took trips inland to see San Juan, Arecibo, and El Yunque National Forest.   Each trip offered rich learning opportunities, making for many “field trips”.

BOQUERON

A cruiser stop, for sure.  The town itself is very small, but it is said to have a wild night life.  When we dinghied into the dock, we were welcomed by a group of cruisers enjoying cold Medellas (local beer) and exchanging stories.  It seems that many boaters have come here and never left!

Seagull parking lot by dinghy dock

local sailboat in the harbor

GUILLIGAN’S ISLAND

Mangroves surround this park, making it a calm, shaded getaway for locals.  A ferry brings them from the mainland, and they come loaded with coolers, chairs, swim floats, and dominoes!  Picnic tables and shallow water make this a wonderful spot to spend a warm afternoon.  The kids played for hours on the paddleboard and kayak in the calm waters. 

We also met some windsurfers who love the winds that come through the bay every afternoon.  A retired Microsoft guy, 64, originally from Germany, lives here and in Seattle part time each year.  He finally bought a home 9 years ago, and loves windsurfing every day he can.  He offered free, private lessons, but none of us were brave enough to take him up on it!  We witnessed up close and personal just how fast those things can go!  Several came gliding by our stern as we were anchored!

Guilligan's Island Ferry

Local family enjoying dominoes

Riding through the mangroves

Windsurfer's paradise!

ISLA DE MUERTOS

A small, protected island located off the southern shore.  We hiked through cacti forests to reach a lighthouse, which was built in the early 1800s.  The climb was long on a hot day, and we’d only brought one waterbottle!  Oops.  But it was nice to have some more down time with Meryl and Walter from Flying Cloud.  Elizabeth took photos the entire way up, and Michael was hunting for termite nests.

View from the lighthouse

Cactus up close (photo by Elizabeth)

Walking and talking! (photo by E)

SALINAS

A popular hurricane hideout filled with cruising boats and locals.  The Marina de Salinas offers laundry, showers, and a great bar where we played many games of dominoes with our buddy boats SeaSchell, WindLass, and Flying Cloud.   Elizabeth and Michael were excited to find a small playground, something they haven’t seen since our time in Charleston, SC!  The conveniences available quickly made this our home base.  From here, we rented a car to travel and provision. 

Playing dominos with s/v Sea Schell & s/v Wind Lass.

Farkle while we wait for laundry!

Our friend Denise gave E a beautiful hairdo!

A trunkful from Costco!

ARECIBO

The largest radio telescope in the world, built in the 1960’s is located in this tiny town.  It literally sits in the sinkhole among lush mountains.  The telescope is used to locate and track things in space and also to listen for any activity.  It was an unbelievable sight! 

An interesting science museum is also on the property.  Elizabeth was intrigued by the laser replica of the Gregorian Dome, and how the telescope needs a certain curve of its disk to receive the messages at the right angle.  Michael loved the cloud machine!  Later that same week, we were doing school and Elizabeth found the Arecibo telescope in our Children’s Encyclopedia that we use!  Love it when that happens - actually experiencing what we read in school firsthand!

Mark and kids overlooking telescope

Blurb in Usborne's Children's Encyclopedia about telescope

Blowing "clouds" around

More Puerto Rico Field Trips to be continued on next blog including a video.....

Going Green(er)

We've made a couple of big changes aboard Field Trip over the past several months.  We significantly upgraded our solar installation & added wind generation.

Admittedly, I'm not a big believer in wind & solar energy cost effectiveness (no subsidies) for private consumption.  Technology is getting better and the return on investment improving.  The principles are good, the raw economics not so much.  There are no subsidies on a boat to go green.

For us, it is less about cost effectiveness, and more about reducing our need to burn diesel to supply our energy needs.  We have a finite capacity (159Gallons/600L) and prefer to use this for water making & when absolutely necessary - propulsion (that's why we have a sailboat...grin).  We like the idea of being completely 'off the grid', having complete reliance on the weather for energy generation.  

The trick is weather.  Some days it's sunny.  Some days windy.  Some days both.  Some days neither.  The amount of wind, sun and rain you get is dependent on season, latitude and just good ole mother nature.

Sun and Wind Overview

Let's look at how sunshine varies by latitude and time of year.  The farther north from the equator, the more variation you have with sunshine.

Using New England as an example, the variation between 15 hours to 8.5 hours of sunlight is significant.  However, if you are on a boat, this may not be as significant since most people are not living on their boats in the New England winter.

Going farther south, towards the equator, there is a lot less variation in sunshine, less than 2 hours throughout the year.

The second consideration, and in some cases the most variable is wind.  For us, it was a matter of figuring out where was the boat going to be 'most' of the time, and does it make sense to have wind generation?  If we were going to have our boat in New England or the Chesepeake during the summer, having wind generation would be an expensive idea, given the winds are not very strong most of the time.

How strong is strong enough for wind generation?  That depends on the wind generator.  Without getting too technical, a good rule of thumb is you need at least 10 kts of breeze to get 'some' power from your wind generator, 15kts+ to really see some meaningful output.

For Field Trip, we plan on keeping her mainly in the trade wind regions.  Trades blow constantly from 15-20+ knots most of the year around the globe.

Prevailing Trade Winds

Green Power Generation Aboard Field Trip

This is a large topic, that has taken us over a year of living aboard to figure out what works, and what things we would do differently.

Solar Power

Lets start with solar panels.  There are many different types on the market.  In the past several years much has changed with solar panels, their uses, efficiency and overall design.  

View of Solar and Wind Generation on Field Trip

Aboard Field Trip, we have 6 BP panels - four 50 watt and two 80 watt.  These panels are of an older technology, and do not handle shading well.  If there are shadows, even small, the power output drops 90%+.  I've measured this, and have confirmed how painful any shadow can be.  

Newer panels are MUCH more efficient when it comes to shadows, having a reduction in power closer to the % of the panel being shaded.  Ripping off the panels and putting on news ones may happen at some point in the future.

The next important consideration with solar panels is the solar controller.  This is the device that controls the output from the solar panels and converts the power to usable amps for the batteries.  Technology in this space has changed significantly as well.  We had an old style controller installed from the factory.  The newer technology called MPPT is about 30% more efficient in converting solar power to amps for the battery.  Click HERE for a detailed overview of the technology.   

We upgraded our unit to the Outback MPPT controller.  It was one of two manufacturers (Morningstar being the other) recommended by an expert after he assessed our installation in Annapolis.

To the left is a photo of our output on the Outback.  You can see the In of 17.0V and 8.4A. This is what a non MPPT controller will output to the batteries - i.e. our old controller.  

With the Outback, you can see we are getting 10.7A to the batteries, 27% more power than 8.4A.  

Essentially the controller is converting the volt difference 17V vs 13.4V -- 3.6V to amps.  This is the magic of the MPPT algorithm.

It is important to note, not all MPPT algorithms are created equal.  There are some cheaper versions on the market with 'MPPT' algorithms, that are not as efficient as some of the top vendors - Outback and Morningstar.

The next logical question, how many amps per day are we averaging with our MPPT controller?  Well, the good news is this is very easy to answer exactly, as the controller keeps a history of over 100 days of use, so I can see each day how many amps we are dumping into our house bank of batteries. 

Below is a 14 day view of Field Trip while in Puerto Rico on the hook.

So what does an average of 94 amp hours a day mean?  In practical terms, we are staying virtually power neutral to slightly positive on 94 amp hours aboard Field Trip.  Not 100% when we start to use laptops, autopilot and other higher power draw items, but nice to know we can leave our boat for a month and not worry about killing our batteries on refrigeration alone.

It is important to note, you must be sure your refrigeration is properly tuned.  We had ours serviced in Brazil.  They fixed a leak, but ended up overcharging our unit...and we were using more power than necessary to keep the fridge and freezer cold.  More on refrigeration, tips, tricks, etc. in another blog entry.

Wind Generation

D400

This is hotly debated in forums and amongst sailors.  Frankly, if you plan on being in the trade wind zones for most of your sailing, it is a no brainer - if you are not getting your power needs met by solar alone.  

The biggest 'poo poo' I hear against wind is the 'noise factor'.  This is very true for some - but not all generators.  I would only recommend two wind generators - Duogen 400 or Superwind 350.  These are both virtually silent in a blow.

S350

I was sold for over a year on the D400.  It was the generator I was going to get in the states.  After doing more research, and reading Practical Sailor (think Consumer Reports for sailors) - they chose the SuperWind 350 as the best overall generator in light wind - twice.  

So, I said if it was good enough for Practical Sailor, it was good enough for me.  Was I wrong?  Sort of...

Below is a comparison of both the Superwind 350 vs. Duogen 400 - based on manufacturer supplied data.

What do you see?  I saw a potential revision in my decision for the S350.  Why?  Well, 'most' of the time winds are going to be < 20 knots.  In this range, the D400 is superior in output.  Between 20 - 30 knots, the S350 is superior.  What was up with Practical Sailor?  Well, they didn't review the D400.  If I had created my own comparison of the two as I did for this blog, I 'may' have gone with the D400. 

Since we've been sailing hard to the wind since leaving the Bahamas - our apparent wind has not been less than 20kts - and I've been mentally in good shape about our decision.  It's sitting at anchor when it is blowing 15kts that I cringe once in a while...grin.  In the end, either wind generator is leaps and bounds above the alternatives and we are happy to have this as renewable power source aboard Field Trip.