Getting closer to whale watching

We woke up to a peaceful condition of the sea under a thin cover of clouds. The forecast was not calling for wind until the afternoon, so we used the morning to swim, fish and do a couple of chores.

We tried to replace the gaskets on the hatches, but the bolts are totally seized and with the available tools there is no way we were going to succeed drilling out the stainless bolts and get the job done.

After re-reading the documentation and troubleshooting section for the Watt&Sea hydrogenerator, I flipped the orientation of the bracket so that the blade of the generator would be off center, hoping that it would get a more laminar flow and produce more stable current. During the sail the RPMs were a lot more stable, although getting to 300W of output still seems impossible.

Another point of irritation was the Watt&Sea controller choosing between solar and hydro. I reran the wires for the solar so that it would work in parallel with wind and hydro. Yesterday was not sunny, so the solar output was insignificant. Will test it all tomorrow, counting on all 3 sources of power to contribute to battery health. In any case, yesterday's state of electrical affairs was much better.

For lunch we had fish soup from the head and tail of our catch. Peter said that grandma's fish soup is the best and had seconds. Leo declined the soup and had a couple of grilled chicken legs instead.

Before departing we set up the mini-spinni, since the winds were supposed to be light, but not behind us. Genoa would have been slower and spinnaker the wrong choice.

After maybe 20 minutes after departure Mark yelled "Whale!", pointing at the foam in the water about 100 meters off our beam. Indeed, the beautiful animal was right at the surface, showing us its spout and fins. We didn't change our course so as not to irritate the whale and he didn't want to come closer, so taking pictures with the phones was futile. Sadly, that was the only sighting of animals or fish on the way. 

The sail in the drizzle was quite smooth. We setup the Hydrovane to steer us towards Provincetown and she did quite well. In the least sensitive setting she was getting off course by about 15 degrees. The middle setting did a bit better, keeping within 10 degrees of the desired destination.

Boys were playing quite well until 5 minutes before arrival when the got a bit on each others' nerves. Mama and papa were mostly sitting in the cabin hiding from the drizzle.

A flock of birds greeting us at the entrance to the harbor.

Provincetown marina didn't answer our first calls on the radio nor picked up the phone, but as I was about to give up Mark had better luck. A launch came out to point us to a mooring and we tied up for the night as the wind picked up and it started raining a lot heavier.

Today the forecast is uncertain: it is windy now and raining intermittently. We may or may not get thunderstorms or the wind may die completely. So, the plan is to stay put, maybe go into P-town and then play games aboard.