Captain's Blog

Pete’s Pier  The trip south to all our “fun” spots is a good day (8 hours).  We put out a request on some different forums for anyone looking to rent out their slip for awhile. We made contact with a boat owner in Tampa who was leaving for 6 months to head north. We emailed back & forth and decided, “let’s go for it!”. The slip is in Old Tampa Bay at the Westshore Yacht Club . It looked really cool. We spent the next month and a half getting Pau Hana ready for the new location. Westshore Yacht Club The predicted tide at our departure time was very low so we left the day before & spent the night on the hook in King’s Bay, that way we didn’t have to worry about hitting bottom. Little did I know. We had an awesome night & we were greeted by a fantastic sunrise.  We made some coffee & a quick breakfast, did our checks & motored out. Remnants from a Canaveral launch? I had a lot of confidence in a new route allowing me to cut in a little closer & shave ...

  .....and it's all right!  The rear deck on Pau Hana has a fantastic aluminum & fiberglass cover over it. The skin is a thin fiberglass panel that the previous owner used to store his Port-A-Bote. I had another idea. Since the day I saw the area I thought "Solar Panels".       A WORD OF WARNING : This is the first time I have dealt with any solar panels or installation, that said I may not have done part or any (for that matter) of this project correctly. This is just how I did it, you should do your own research to decide how to properly install any item on your boat, especially if it is electrical in nature.     There are so many choices of panels. I did find from my research that they are not all created equal and like anything else, some are better than others as they may use a better quality materials. There are basically 3 types of panels. Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline and Thin Film. Monocrystalline is the best and most efficient typ...