It’s going to be hard to prize ourselves away from the Huaraki Gulf as there’s so much to do. A lovely cruising destination at this time of year. A change of plan maybe afoot and we will decide at the weekend!
Two new bits of Boat Bling are bringing us much joy in 2026. Last season we condemned our aged and very dead diesel generator and swapped it for a noisy but reliable petrol generator. That did the job though it made for noisy anchorages, occasional carbon monoxide poisoning and a need to carry a lot of petrol to keep us powered up across the Pacific. We gazed in envy at our neighbouring cruisers who were able to cook and subsist purely from the sun’s energy.
For 2026 we have invested in a new rigid 3 solar panel array all mounted on a stainless cage replacing our canvass bimini. Our batteries are now flooded with 5 or 6 kW a day harvested from the harsh Kiwi sun.
For the cloudy, high-wind days and nights we have fitted a second hand Watt & Sea hydro-generator to our transom to deploy when under sail. Once powered up at maximum hull speed this spinning propeller should generate us an additional 600 Watts per hour.
No longer are we the noisy, petrol gobbling pariahs in the anchorage. Instead, we sit smugly in the sunshine watching our Bluetooth app monitors as the watts flow in. We now have the luxury finding new ways to use our new found solar riches. An electric kettle has replaced the propane one and at last we can grind our fresh coffee beans at speed and not worry about powering down the internet to save the electrons.
