Yesterday morning in the outhouse I caught the marine weather forecast, as I do every day, on the crank radio we keep there. I was pretty happy. We’ve had a long period of calm, which has reduced our power use to essentials only, but recently the wind had come back. The night before a steady 20 knot southerly had charged the battery bank all night long, giving us just the right kind of power for a sustained charge. The last forecast had suggested the day would bring 25 knot winds, which would build to about 35 by evening. I planned to continue our charge through the day, then shut the generator down before bedtime.
My complacency changed with the new forecast: 30 knots in the morning, building to 50 knots from the south, with 10 foot seas. Continue reading