July 10, 2024 - Downpour and Solar Wiring

Dad and I were up early and immediately went to work. Today was the day to finally finish up the solar wiring. Earlier in the year we had purchased and installed a dinghy arch in preparation for a big trip coming up this fall. The arch is a large and shiny aluminum contraption that bolts to the back of the boat and is useful for many things: hoisting a dinghy, mounting large solar panels, serving as a diving board, hanging ropes from, doing pull-ups, stringing hammocks, and other fabulous uses we are still yet to discover. I installed it over two weekends in May with my mechanically gifted friends Sina and Dave and it turned out beautifully, but I had yet to connect everything for the solar wiring as it had taken me a while to figure out exactly how to do it and to get the supplies and equipment I needed. Final wiring was today’s job, and what better time to do it than when I had an electrical genius on board.

The girls left to do some administration and shopping and Dad and I worked on it until noon. It involved taking all those solar cables we had fished through the boat the other day and connecting them to a backing board with the new solar controller then shoving the whole works into a small cabinet. The final result was impressive and I now have a three circuit solar system on the boat capable of producing a theoretical total of 1330 watts, but realistically probably around 1100. It was immensely satisfying seeing those little green LED lights on the solar controllers start to flash.

We celebrated this achievement by walking down to the Indian Roti House at the harbour front for a couple of extra spicy rotis. The weather today was atrocious as the remnants of hurricane Beryl was barreling through Toronto so we wore raincoats as we walked from the roti shop up to Dundas Square, but in this sort of downpour raincoats can only do so much. By the time we arrived, we were mostly soaked through and we looked like a couple of drowned out rodents standing in the lobby of the mall waiting for the ladies so we could go and see a movie. Magnus had finished his classes for the day so he met us too and we watched A Quite Place – Day One. It was okay. I liked the creatures and the jump scares, but the side stories were just too simple and felt forced. But there hasn’t been much of anything good coming out lately so it was the best we could do.

The rain had finally started to let up by the end of the movie so Dad, Magnus and I walked down to the Town Crier pub for fancy German and Belgian beers while the ladies continued on with their shopping adventures. We met back at the boat for a long and leisurely dinner then put the wraps on a soggy, but fun day in the big city.