Video Annie Writes, Too?: Book Giveaway #1

“Why yes, yes I do!  I did long before the Tube of You.  And here’s a Writer Annie gift for you!”

Okay, maybe the exchange wasn’t quite as sing-songy and rhythmic, but that’s about how it went down last weekend at our favorite anchorage, Ft. McRee, when I had a Video Annie follower come knocking on the hull, and he had no clue I wrote, too.

It’s funny.  The power of YouTube.  It still never ceases to surprise me.  It seems this is the new learning hub of the 21st century.  Reading is a long lost art.  It is rare that someone “looks up” the answer to a question or learns how to do something in a textbook anymore.  They Google it or, far more often, find and watch a YouTube video on how to do it.  Video is the streaming source of knowledge and entertainment these days.  And, while that is a wonderful thing, I still love books.  I love words.  I love to string them together, rearrange and massage them and bring a reader into my world.  And, I especially love to read.  Since I decided to stop making my own YouTube videos earlier this year, I have literally been able to read eight times as many books than I did in 2016 when I was filming, editing and publishing a 20+ minute YouTube video every week.  Eight!  That was not because I wasn’t motivated to read.  I just didn’t have the time.  If you’re curious, I always (try to) keep a running tab of the books I’ve read each year, in order of preference, and you can see the books I devoured (and highly recommend) here.  Let me know if any of you have read and totally gorged yourselves on these books too.  And the Sea Will Tell and Brain on Fire gave my a whole new appreciation for the art of story-telling, the intrigue of missing pieces and the power of perspective.

I believe books are a wonderful thing and still more powerful and absorbing than videos.  You may not agree.  That’s totally fine.  It’s just my preference.  I prefer a bit of a blank stage for my imagination to fill rather than a visually-complete video that leaves no room for my mind to fill in the gaps.  Populating the stage myself with characters as I see them, quirks as I anticipate them and mental sights, sounds and smells inspired by the words I read is a complete thrill and—better yet—creating that stage for others by writing the words myself is the ultimate satisfaction.  I’ve said it many times, and it still rings true.  I believe in words.  I hope you do too.

I thought this little “Video Annie Writes, Too” would be a fun story to share with you all to kick off our four-week Holiday Book Giveaway.  That’s right, a free signed book every week until Phillip and I leave for the Bahamas in December.  Phillip and I are very thankful for our boat, our health, our ability to pursue this amazing lifestyle and the many followers who have inspired me to keep writing and sharing and we want to give back.  So, enjoy the little ditty below.  (You’ll love it.  Brandon becomes a lawyer – ha!).  Then try to answer the fun trivia at the end to win a free signed Salt of a Sailor book, mailed right to you, courtesy of HaveWind.

So, the Blue Angels show at Ft. McRee.  It’s an event Phillip and I try to catch every year because it is such a spectacular anchorage, with most of our boating friends out there along with us for the weekend PLUS a free air show.  I mean, what’s there to even think about!  In 2014, we rafted up at Ft. McRee five-deep for the show!

In, 2015, we rafted up again with Brandon and that’s when he came aboard and diagnosed our rotten stringers.  Episode #31: The Blues Bring Bad News.

While that was a sad day on the boat, Brandon was right there with us from the start telling us “It’s not really that bad,” and “We’ll get you fixed up.”  And, I’ll never forget Phillip staring at those rotten stringers, shaking his head and still saying, “This ain’t stopping us from going to Cuba.”  And, by God, it didn’t!  Not long after that weekend, 2015, is when we hauled out and spent an entire eye- (and wallet-)opening three months at the yard completing a pretty major refit on our boat with Brandon at www.PerdidoSailor.com.  While many days in the yard were hard, grueling, frustrating and just down-right depressing, we kept chipping away at it with Brandon looking over our shoulders and mentoring, it was probably the most beneficial, productive three months of our careers as boat-owners because we learned so much about our boat, how to diagnose and repair her, how best to maintain her and—to be honest—how well-suited Phillip and I were to work together on any problem she could conceivably present us (as there were, and will continue to be, many).

Now, almost two years later, an Atlantic-crossing and a fantastically-invigorating trip to Cuba (just as Phillip had predicted) under our belts, we decided the Blue Angels show this year would probably be our last big Hoorah in Pensacola before we shove off for the Bahamas this December.  So, Phillip and I planned weeks in advance to sail over and drop the hook to enjoy the air show from the view of the Fort.  And, it was a glorious weekend on the boat.  November temps in the high sixties.  Bright, sunny, cloudless skies.  An amazing performance by the Blues, right over our rigging.  And, another fun weekend out with our fellow cruising friends in one of our favorite anchorages.

But, that’s what we often expect at Ft. McRee.  What we didn’t expect (as Video Annie hasn’t been spotted in a while) was a knock on the hull from some excited HaveWind YouTube followers: Bruce and Chris on s/v Sea Hawk.  Chris could be short for Christine, Chrissy, Christorama.  I didn’t care; I like the name Chris for a girl.  These two were fun!

And they were just a few boat-lengths down from us!

The view from Sea Hawk:

Turns out Bruce and Chris were anchored not too far behind our boat, which had Brandon’s Gulf Star rafted-up on our starboard side, and they had recognized the name on the back of our boat “Plaintiff’s Rest” from some of our YouTube videos.  This past year, Bruce and Chris moved out of their house up in Michigan and onto their 1968 Morgan (beautiful classic boat) and started sailing around Lake Superior to get their sea legs feet wet (or freezing!).  They had eventually made their way down the coast to Pensacola with their sights set on the Gulf, the west coast of Florida, the Caribbean and beyond.

Bruce dinghied up behind Brandon’s stern and started chatting away with Brandon who was out on the deck, grilling sausage.  About 80% of the time when Brandon and the family are out on the boat, there is sausage of some form grilling—breakfast, lunch, happy hour snack, or dinner (and we love them for it!).  I heard the words “Video Annie” and figured I had to pop up to see what was going on (and more importantly, what Brandon might say in response).  Bruce—God love him—was talking ninety miles-a-minute with no one able to get a word in edgewise.  He was talking about my YouTube videos, our time in the shipyard, our sail to Cuba and how he and Chris had been following my video blog for a while, how it had inspired them to finally start cruising, yachta, yachta, yachta …

I peeked out our companionway and could see Brandon smiling and chuckling to himself.  Then Bruce said, “And you’re a lawyer too, right, like Annie?  You guys both practice, or used to.  Chris and I thought that was so funny, two lawyers become sailors.”  And, Bruce continues rattling on.  I’m now laughing behind Brandon’s back and seeing him try to cut in to correct Bruce, but after Bruce just kept on a-truckin’, Brandon finally said.  “Yeah, the practice is hard.  I have to go to a lot of depo parties.”  I then let an uncontrollable cackle out.  Brandon loves to call legal depositions “depo parties.”  I finally stepped up into our cockpit so I could finally be seen by Bruce and he bellows: “VIDEO ANNIE!”

Turns out she lives on.  That feisty old gal.  Bruce, a little confused, glanced down at the name on Brandon’s stern, 5 O’Clock, then at the name on our stern, Plaintiff’s Rest, and said “Oh okay, this is your boat,” as he pawed his dinghy over to our Niagara, still chatting away about us (Brandon and I as he pointed) being lawyers and all.  Then Phillip finally emerged from our companionway, and Bruce said, “Oh … ” the first moment of silence since he’d arrived.  “Oh yeah, the bald one.  You’re the lawyer!” Bruce shouted, and Brandon lost it.  “Yeah, the bald ones are better,” he laughed.

Brandon, you funny!

Love that guy.

After a few minutes of unraveling Bruce’s confusion and him now understanding this was the same Brandon with Perdido Sailor, from all of our shipyard videos, Bruce then felt like he was truly in a celebrity circle.  We had a very fun chat with Bruce and his wife, Chris, about their finding their boat, following our HaveWind blog, enjoying our videos and, even, their first big sea experience on Lake Superior.  Chris was telling me that their first day out, they experienced 6-8 foot seas all day, and I told her that sounded a lot like my first offshore voyage on our boat.  “Oh yeah?” she asked.  And, then I asked if she had read Salt of a Sailor.  Bruce perked up and said “Video Annie writes, too?”

’Course she does!

“Yes, I love to write!” I piped back at Bruce.  “Do you like to read?” I challenged him, to which he and Chris both immediately spouted, “Yes!”

“Wait right there, then,” and I promptly went below to fetch Bruce and Chris one of my books from our cabin.  I began writing an inscription in Salt of a Sailor for them and told them they would enjoy the story of my first voyage which I told them, as I winked over to Chris, “also involved some 6-8 foot stuff.”

“Oh, our second day across the lake, we were in 12-14 footers!” Chris responded.

12-14 footers?  In a cold-ass lake!  I thought to myself.  Holy Moley!  I can’t wait until Chris writes that story because I would love to read it!  You can follow along on Bruce and Chris’s Sea Hawk’s Journeys here.

The reason I share this fun little exchange is because while I will never have the same reach with simply my blog, Instagram and Facebook page, that I had with YouTube—because video marketing is simply the way of the future—I still always want people to know that my platform at HaveWindWillTravel started with words.  It started with one of my favorite passions: writing.  And, I want to share my love for books and stories as much as my love for photos and videos.  Writing that, just now, I had to go back and look.  Wow, here is my very first blog post, dated March 29, 2013, titled “My First Sail,” which later became my first article in a sailing magazine, Cruising Outpost.  Man, how time flies!

Everyone knows the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  And, most millennials would probably say: “Then a video is worth a thousand pictures.”  While that may be true, I believe it’s all in the eye of the imagination-holder.  My own humble view is that it is, in fact, words—with their silent draw, their open canvas, their endless possibility for interpretation—that are worth a thousand videos.  With that in mind, I blew on my signature to dry the Sharpie scrawl, closed the cover to Salt of a Sailor and handed it to Chris, saying: “I hope Writer Annie inspires you, too.”

After that fun little share, I believe it’s high time Phillip and I kicked off this four-week Holiday Book Giveaway.  What say you?  If some of you don’t know, I have published three fun, entertaining sailing books that I love to share with followers.  You can download and read free previews of each book or order copies here.  Just as Bruce and Chris now hold and (I hope) cherish their signed copy of Salt of a Sailor, one of you can too.  First follower, either here or on Facebook, to answer this question correctly in a comment wins!  If you know the answer but already have a hard copy (or do not need another hard copy to give away as a gift), please let another follower chime in, thanks!

Book Giveaway #1:

For our first book giveaway trivia, we’re going to dig all the way back to the origin of Annie’s sailing days, back to 2013 and our first passage on our 1985 Niagara 35.  Who doesn’t love the infamous Mitch, right?  The answer is no one.  Just no one.  So, “while you’re down there” digging around in your HaveWind mental archives, what was the food item the infamous Mitch was craving right after we broke down in Carrabelle and were waiting on the mechanic to come and have a look at our engine?

And … GO!

Happy Holidays folks.  Phillip and I are so grateful to have you all following along and we hope you continue to enjoy ours and pursue your own journey!  It’s a big world out there.  Mostly accessible by boat!  : )

#63: Cruising in Pensacola

Enough with the shipyard!  I think you kids need a little flashback break and a glimpse of what all this hard work is for and the fantastic cruising grounds we have right here in our home port of Pensacola.  Enjoy!  (But don’t you get lazy … we’re getting right back to work next time!  Just a few more projects and that boat will be pimped out, rigged up and ready for blue waters!)

And … little glimpse in the life of Annie.  Life is SO FULL for this little sailor right now.  I’m about to embark on an incredible adventure which I will announce on the blog THIS FRIDAY!  I’m working on a really cool trailer for that this week.  I’m also working hard on the book as well as I plan to publish it THIS MAY so you all have another salty Annie saga to relish while I’m off adventuring.  Not to mention all of my normal HaveWind stuff that I need to stockpile so it can publish on schedule in my wake.  I wouldn’t want you all to go through Annie withdrawals!  I do it all for you, because I couldn’t do it without you.  Thanks to you all, my Patrons, fans and subscribers, who have shown me such love and support!  HaveWind is about to Travel to new heights!  Buckle up!

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Something Borrowed, Something Brewed

Alright, (while I can’t confidently speak to the inner-workings of tequila-making), I’m sure it isn’t actually “brewed,” but I needed it to work with my theme.  Just let me run with this.

June 5, 2015:

We have always found it funny (startling, actually) how really small the “cruising community” is.  You will meet a gal in a little marina on the other side of the world who knows the guy who is fixing up a boat in the slip next to you back in your home port.  I’m not kidding.  It’s global but, in a sense, it is so small.  And, the way you meet people and make those connections tends to be such good fodder for my favorite thing in all of cruising — STORIES.  Let me ask you, how many times have you met a new cruiser in port or out in an anchorage because you needed to borrow something?  Perhaps you ran out of duct tape (blasphemy!), or you can’t find your little keyring thing of allen wrenches, or you need to bum some of that all-purpose wonder stuff, anti-corrosion spray, to knock a rusty bolt off.  It happens all the time, and cruisers are some of the most generous folks when it comes to lending out their useful boat stuff.  Case in point here, and a good story to go with it.  This occurred sometime in June of 2014 when Phillip and I had just returned from our Cruise to the Keys.  We met a fantastic cruising couple at one of our local anchorages because we needed to bum something and when they came back through our cruising grounds the next year, they cashed in on the favor in a most interesting way with something borrowed, something brewed.  (And, I can’t really say why I started this blog on such a sing-song note.  Perhaps I was inspired by the soon-to-be-released book Suess so long ago wrote.  Either way, I think I’ll have some fun with words today, and present a rhythmic blog upon which I hope you dote.)   Here’s how it played out:

On the hook one morning, the Captain and I found ourselves in quite the pickle.  It seems we’d brought a hose for our dinghy pump that was far too fickle.  Without the proper inflating dinghy nub, our dinghy was a sinking tub, and bound to our boat we would be as sad as a cell that is sickle.

The Captain refused to sit stranded on our boat on his rump, so he set off on the SUP to request from our anchor neighbors a loaner pump.  He stumbled upon a couple, the dame quite supple, on an exquisite Dufour who countered the Captain’s request with an offer for trade in sum lump.

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The ladies on the Dufour, were digging the Cap’n and his board and believed, in exchange for loaning their pump, a free stand-up paddle lesson was in store.  The Captain happily agreed, considering a lesson an easy deed, to allow us mobility for all the fun dinghy outings the weekend could afford.

Later in the day, when the Dufour crew got back out, they stopped by our boat to bring us a brew that was quite stout, as the Dufour dame, it seemed, like Patron with coffee teamed, the taste of which we would love she did not doubt.

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In all, we spent a grand day with the couple “next door,” their spirit and spunk quite fitting for a Dufour.  We were thrilled to learn, they would soon return as they sailed from Mandeville to our area every year for a month or three or four.

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True to their word, the Dufour couple sailed back our way this past May and tried to coordinate another rendezvous at Ft. McRee.  Sadly, with schedules jam-packed, the cards against us were stacked, and it appeared we were only going to pass them briefly in the ICW one particular day.

The Dufour dame it seemed believed that was close enough indeed.  She decided to cash in the long-owed dinghy pump favor, with a liquor she could savor, and she enlisted the Captain and I to bring her a bottle of which she was in dire need.

Wanting to repay the fine couple for rescuing us so long ago, we set off that day, our boat loaded with her precious cargo.  Near the North Cut, I spotted the Dufour crew, toting another couple, too, awaiting our arrival in colorful hats and attire reminiscent of Key Largo.

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They rafted up quick as we motored along and worked quickly to accomplish the exchange.  Captain Dufour graciously paid us extra for the cost of the liquor, while a smile, a chuckle and a “keep the change.”  The dame, alone, was quick to satisfy her thirst for Patron, and she immediately grasped the bottle and tipped it up the minute it was within range.

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(Love it Cara!)

Once the exchange was made, we bid the DuFour crew adieu, and they dinghied back to their anchorage their spirits anew with fresh “brew.”  Having fulfilled our pact, our boat borrowing karma well intact, the Captain and I continued along content, knowing we would likely find ourselves someday in need of a boat-to-boat alcohol delivery, too.

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Solar Panels Bring the Blues

November 7-9, 2014:

After our racy rendezvous with the Sundowner crew in NOLA we were itching to get back out on our boat.  Now that we had our slick solar panels installed and (presumably) working, it was time to take them out for a test run, and what better time than the Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Show in November!  Several of our boat buddies were planning to get out for it, too, so it was quickly decided we would all get together for a massive raft-up.  We were five-deep at the Fort baby!

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From left to right:

1.  s/v Edelweiss, a well-kept 34′ Sabre, is often packed to the brim with the Armanis — two veterinarians with (now) three little ones in tow.  Did anyone call for a doctor?

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2.  s/v WindWalker, a 38′ Morgan, belongs to our trusted diesel engine mechanic, Johnny Walker (yes, that’s really his name, feel free to make all the associated Jim Bean, Jack Daniels jokes you’d like – he’s used to it), and his beautiful wife, Cindy.  (While this is my absolute favorite picture of Johnny and Cindy, don’t doubt it, rain, shine or cold – these two are always smiling!)

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3.  5 O’Clock, a 45′ Gulfstar, being the largest boat in the bunch often plays the role of “mothership” and is Captained by the only and only (you know this guy, he’s practically a celebrity in our world), Bottom-Job Brandon!  His rocking wife Christine and their (now) two little salty sailors round out the Hall crew.

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4.  s/v Plaintiff’s Rest and it’s fine-looking crew need no introduction, really.  Admit it, it’s only the best-looking boat in the bunch.

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5.  And, last but certainly not least, s/v Pan Dragon, a classic 36′ Pearson, is the pride and joy of our Broker-turned-Boat Buddy, Kevin, along with his incredibly entertaining wife, Laura, and their (now) two little ones seen here doing what they love to do — just “hang around” on the boat.

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I will say Phillip and I are exceptionally lucky to have fallen into such a fine group of sailing comrades when we purchased our boat back in 2013.  All of these Captains are sharp, talented sailors, each with a different area of expertise and each having proven their willingness time and again to help us out when we’ve found ourselves faced with a difficult boat project, and vice versa.  It’s also great to see the lot of them (which with all of the “nows” you might have recognized has recently grown – three new additions in 2015 alone!) get their boats out just about every weekend they are able with the whole crawling/cradle crew in tow.  I wouldn’t trust myself to keep a potted plant alive on the boat and here they bring their actual living, breathing, arms-and-legs munchkins aboard and show us all it can (and should) be done.  Families can cruise too.  They’re really impressive.

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Having all five of us lined up for this phenomenal weekend was a pretty epic feat.  But, when the Blue Angels come home, folks in Pensacola tend to get together for the event.  And, because the Blue Angels fly over their home base, the Pensacola Naval Air Station, for the homecoming show, we knew we would be right under the flight path anchored out near Ft. McRae.

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Here comes one now!   Zzzwweeehhhhh!

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See?  They flew right over us!  I kept trying to snap a cool shot of them coming by the boat but they kept breaking up, zipping around, looping and coming out of nowhere.  Those suckers are fast!  (And loud.)

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After about 84 missed shots (give or take), I finally caught them right where I wanted them.  Just overhead.  Check out the money shot!  BOOM.

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Hull No. 193, baby!  That’s us!  It looks like they’re only 20 feet above our mast.  While I can assure you, they are much higher, it doesn’t sound or feel like it when you’re watching them zip overhead.  Zwweeehhhh!!

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(Thank (and like) the Blue Angels Facebook team for the wicked pics!)

The show was jaw-dropping.  “Hold on to your drink, Cap’n!”

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First Mate rockin’ the rubbers!

They even put on an evening show (which they had not done in years) at the Naval Air Station.  We could catch glimpses of it (and hear the roar of the flaming big rig) from our boats.

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In all, it was an incredible weekend spent out on the boat with an amazing group of friends.

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And, best of all, the solar panels performed beautifully.  While we felt good about the Velcro adhesion, just to be safe I had taken some time back at the dock to manually stitch the panels on through their corner grommets with some green sail twine.

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You can see it on the corners here:

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Those flat little panels were expensive!  While it was highly unlikely, I wasn’t going to risk them flying off in some heavy winds.  They also proved extremely productive during our weekend out, pumping in (just about as we had expected) approximately 8 amps/hour.

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It was truly gratifying to watch our amp hours go DOWN during the day.  We were definitely pleased with the input and thrilled with the results of a long and tedious project.  Life was good … for a brief moment.  I swear that dern boat likes to toy with us sometimes.  Right when you think everything is running smoothly and everything about boating is awesome, the boat likes to throw a little wrench in things just to, you know, keep you guessing.  After our amazing weekend out on the boat, we woke Sunday to an awe-inspiring sky, sipped on coffee and decided we would ease the anchor up about mid-morning to enjoy a beautiful sail home.

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That was the plan anyway, until we tried to crank the engine and ———    Nothing, nada, flat line.  We couldn’t even get a click to turn the glow plugs on.  Our starting battery was completely dead.  The boat seemed to think it was funny.

It’s not funny, boat.

Luckily, on our boat, we can flip a switch to combine the house batteries with the starting battery, in situations like this, to pull from the house bank in order to crank the engine.  It’s not really good for the house batteries because they’re intended primarily for deep cycle use, but if you’ve got to crank, you’ve got to crank.  So, that’s what we did, and she started right up, which was a good sign.  That meant it wasn’t an engine problem just a battery problem, but it was still baffling.  What gives, boat?

Thankfully, we had a whole host of boat friends nearby to help us run through some things and troubleshoot.  Assuming our starting battery was still good (which, being only a year old, it was pretty safe to assume it was) the primary difference was the solar panels.  Once installed, they were essentially “on” all the time.  Meaning, any time they panels were in the sunlight, they were pumping in juice.  While the MPPT charge controllers regulate the influx of power to make sure the house batteries do not get overwhelmed by the solar input, one option kicked around the group was the possibility that the solar input may have overwhelmed the alternator and caused it not to re-charge the starting battery while we were motoring over to the Fort on Friday.

Back home, we took the starting battery the following week to several different Auto Zone type places to have it tested, and each time it passed with flying colors.  The battery was good.  That left the panels.  We decided to install switches under the aft locker next to the MPPT charge controllers to allow us to turn the panels off when we were running under engine power so as not to confuse the alternator and allow our starting battery to re-charge.

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It was a pretty simple job and (we hoped) would be a pretty easy fix to our crank problem.  The next couple of times she cranked fine, and we were sure to turn the panels off when we were under motor and turn them back on again once we killed the engine if we wanted solar input.  Life was good again.  Until …

Yes, again.  Such are the joys of owning a boat.  Seemingly randomly, after several times cranking without incident, the minute we had some family in town and invited them out on the boat for a beautiful, brisk day sail, she wouldn’t crank.  It was clear we

had a serious boat battery mystery to solve.  And,  I swear the boat thought it was funny.

It’s not funny, boat.

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Captain Sherlock and I were hot on the case.  It simply had to be “elementary.”

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