September 1-10, 2001 -- DC Electrical Panels Today, we worked on varnish again. The teak trim by the door and around the aft seating area is starting to look pretty good! The flag pole is almost done as well! On Sunday, September 2, it rained for most of the day so we started working on getting the new breaker panels loaded with the correct breakers for our DC systems. We also installed the back lighting panels and the led indicator lights. On Monday, September 3, we continued working on the panel layout. By the end of the day, we had completed all of the new panels. We configured 14 panels and approximately 100 breakers. On Tuesday, September 4, we took a break and went into town for a few groceries. We took it easy for the rest of the day knowing that we would be entering electrical hell in the morning when we started replacing breaker panels. On Wednesday, September 5, we embarked on what we naively thought would be a 3 day project. We started replacing the DC breaker panels. The first thing we had to do was to straighten out the wiring from the original panels that had already been installed. So, we dressed in the existing wires and made them look neater; anything is an improvement over a rat's nest!. In the process we also managed to be able to get the electrical panel open further. By mid afternoon, we were ready to install our first breaker panels. We tried to keep the layout fairly simple, and selected a breaker panel set that would make sense with the existing new panels, but would also remove the bulk of the connections from the far right panel. We were about 70% successful. By about 6:00 or so, we packed it in and had installed 2 new panels. We had 12 more to go. On Thursday, September 6, we dressed in the 2 panels that we installed yesterday. Jackobyte, Tahoe and Jolly Moon stopped by to say hello. They had been up at the Rendezvous Beach Resort pool swimming. After they left, we got back to work. Instead of installing another panel today, we made sure that everything would be set up for continuing to work tomorrow. On Friday, September 7, we went into town for perishables, then came back and, big surprise, went to work on the electrical panels again. We were now in the position of having to do everything at the same time. We were about to remove the last set of breakers. So, We measured up the panel door, and made our cuts. Since the old breakers were segmented 2/3 of the way across, we knew that, while would need to leave the door open, we could install two panels of breakers without too much concern. We undid and labeled all of the remaining breakers on the far right bank of breakers and proceeded to start working. By about 8:00 PM AST, we were finally in a position where we could stop working for the evening. We had lights, that was the most important thing. On Saturday September 8, we got up early, and worked late on breakers! Seriously, we knew at this point that we would have to do a thorough cut over to the new system, so that is what we did. We installed the remaining 6 panels, then unplugged and labeled the remaining wires from the old breaker system. We spent the rest of the day extending wires and hooking things up to the new breaker system. We finally called it quits at about 8:00 PM AST. It had been a long day! On Sunday, September 9, we completed the last of the work on the new electrical panel. All of the old stuff was removed! We finished dressing in the existing wires, and made note of the wires not yet connected. We made our list of supplies we would need to finish hooking up the remaining wires. Just as we were closing the panel door, the door almost fell off in our hands! Fortunately, a quick survey told us what happened. The screws holding the door were too short for the added load. So, while I held the door, Mike scrounged for new, bigger, better screws. We put the door back up and finally managed to get it closed comfortably. On Monday, September 10, we found a bus bar that we had forgotten we had. Mike glued it to the panel door and we used it to supply power for the back lighting. We spent an hour or so wiring this up, and then spent the rest of the day basking in the warm glow of back lit electrical panels

We headed out this morning with our list in hand, anxious to finish up the last bits of our electrical panel. We left early from the boat, around 8:45 or so. We stopped by Serendipity to drop something off, and headed on to the marina. Myrna, the owner of the Boat Yard Restaurant told us that someone had just attacked the US, hitting both the Pentagon and one of the World Trade Center Towers. At first we thought she was crazy. She said to go look at the television. We walked up to the bar just as CNN was showing a large airplane flying into one of the World Trade Center towers. I remember flopping on to a bar stool and staring at the TV. We watched as they ran down what happened. A few minutes later, we got on the VHF and announced to the anchorage what had happened. From there, several boats who had TVs aboard, and those who had SSBs aboard were watching and listening to CNN, and they were giving a running commentary for those who could not get to a television. One of our friend's husband was home, visiting New York during this. We corralled her and brought her back to the boat with us. She had been trying to contact him without success. We offered the use of our satellite phone so she could continue trying, Cable and Wireless charges for even an unsuccessful call attempt. We spent the day going between the boat and the Boatyard Restaurant watching and listening. As the day wore on, we started thinking about friends and family. We tried calling with our satellite phone, but as with our friend, we could not get through to anywhere in the US. The rest of the day was a blur. For the rest of the week, we were glued to CNN and the Fox News Channel. The Grenada TV stations preempted their normal broadcast schedule to carry both news channels. By Friday, we were almost burned out on news, or lack there of, and needed a diversion. Friday night the Boatyard Restaurant, as usual, had their steel band playing, so we, along with a bunch of other boaters went to listen

After a week of watching the news, we knew that we still had work that had to be done. Life marches on, and you can neglect your responsibilities only so long, so we turned again to the DC electrical system on the boat. We started the day by running new 6 gauge wire to the DC freezer system to correct a voltage problem. Then we spent the rest of the day tracing out and removing old unused wire. On September 16, we spent a quiet day aboard the boat. We still weren't feeling overly social. We did some varnish work, and that was about it. On September 17, we ran to the market. We hadn't been in over a week, and we were out of milk, bread and a few other essentials. On September 18, we discovered that our autopilot is a 24 volt system. We went to power it on, and discovered that it wasn't working. The only wires we had removed recently were 24 volt wires. Well, we scrambled to review our documentation and discovered that, indeed our system could support either 12 or 24 volts. We traced out the wiring and sure enough, our autopilot was hooked up to 24 volts, no longer supplied of course. Well, we had one 3 gang panel left. We hooked it up quickly and reran our autopilot stuff, and voila we had a breaker for the autopilot inside, one of our main goals of redoing the electrical panels in the first place! On September 19, during the morning net, Donna on Windwitch made an announcement to suggest that the cruisers in Grenada do a fundraiser to send to New York. We volunteered to collect for Prickley Bay. We went into the marina to meet with Windwitch about this around 10:30 AM AST or so. A squall came through from the south and one of the lines supporting the aft canvas broke. Steve let us know that our canvas was blowing all about, and that several boats had called us about the canvas. We went back to the boat and took the canvas down, so that was not flapping about. Fortunately, the new zippers held. After that bit of excitement and with the squall well past, we went back to the marina to grab a bacon cheese burger and use the Internet to check on a couple of things. When we returned to the boat, a big swell was running directly out of the south, must have been kicked up by a couple of large squalls out there. The boat was rolling 15 dregrees each way with a big one pushing it up to 25 or 30. This did not last too long, but was very uncomfortable. We tried several times to set a stern anchor, but were unable to due to the size of the swell. It finally calmed down, just in time for me to cook dinner!

On September 20, we made a quick trip into town to exchange the stern anchor we had purchased. We deployed the new stern anchor and it worked well. On the way back to the boat, we stopped to talk with Myrna at the Boatyard Restaurant about doing a special lunch and Dominoes Sunday. We didn't do much else. People stopped by off and on throughout the day to give us donations. On September 21, we went into the boat yard (Spice Island Marine) to speak with the owners about a donation to the fund. They were happy to donate, and asked that we pick up their donation on Monday. After that, we went to the super market in the morning and then stayed on the boat the rest of the day with people stopping by. On September 22, we went in to speak with Myrna to confirm the number of people who signed up for the lunch on Sunday. We spent the rest of the day doing small chores around the boat, and of course being available for donations. Mike spent a quiet day celebrating his birthday. I even baked him a cake. On September 23, we had lunch and Dominoes at the Boatyard Restaurant. While there, I spoke with Myrna about the possibility of doing a fundraiser on Friday night for the relief fund. She was excited about doing something and said she would work with her son who handles Friday nights to put something on. On September 24, all of Mike's birthday cake, and all of the milk was gone! We had to go to the store for perishables. Today was the last day for donating to the fund so we again stayed close to the boat to be available. On September 25, Hope from Sunshine Daydream, Donna and Mike from Windwitch, and Mike and I headed to town to get a bank draft in US funds to send to the New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund. Between the 3 bays, we had collected almost $1400. We converted it, then sent it off. After we got back from town, I talked with Myrna to confirm Friday night's event. She wanted to donate the funds collected from the cover charge for Friday night

Today, we spent the day working on maintenance items. Since no one was expected to drop by today, we decided to treat ourselves to an afternoon nap! September 27 was a blur. I was already starting to focus on Friday night's fundraiser! Myrna asked if I could line up 2 hours of cruisers willing to run the door for the restaurant. After putting out a call on the morning net for volunteers, I gladly coerced everyone who called us that day on the VHF into taking a turn at the door. By the end of the day, we had enough people so that each group only had to take 30 minutes at the door. On September 28, we, as usual, went into town to get our perishables for the weekend. We took a nap in the afternoon so we could be fresh for our evening at the Boatyard Restaurant and Tiki Bar. Everyone showed up on time to handle the door, and to work the crowd that was already there for donations. Our special thanks to Jackobyte, Jolly Moon and Foolish Behavior for handling the door. As it turned out, we all stayed close to the door until 9:00 PM AST when the restaurant took it over. We enjoyed the evening at the Boatyard with cruisers and locals who showed up for the event. On September 29, after sleeping in a little bit, I headed into the Boatyard Restaurant to count the cash with Myrna. We raised an additional $1000 US for the fund. On September 30, we took it easy. In the morning, Dick and Jane on Jerendeb called us to let us know that they would be doing dominoes at 2:00 if we would like to play. We said sure. So, we headed in to observe the human calculator (Dick) add up the points of everyone who wasn't nearly as good as they were (the rest of us). Dick and Jane have been cruising the Caribbean for the last 12 years and have become very proficient at keeping the game moving, lively and entertaining