Halley is sailing again

26 50.551n 79 58.241w

It’s been over a month, but now Halley is sailing again. We are heading north from Ft. Lauderdale with the next stop TBD by wind and weather. The sun is setting over the Florida coastline, the wind is gentle off the beam and the Gulf Stream is helping us along with an extra 2 knots of speed. Soon we’ll settle into the night shift routine where Chris and I take 3-4 hour turns at the helm and Lucy keeps the off-shift person company in bed.

And Halley is looking better than ever. While I spent May in Sweden with my mother, Chris oversaw a number of improvements and repairs at Just Catamarans in Dania Beach, Ft. Lauderdale. He was also busy with his own boat projects. Little to no mentioning of this during the phone calls to Sweden, but now I see many things fixed, cleaned and tweaked - nice surprises for sure.

The biggest ticket items were the addition of 5 large and powerful solar panels, a new, heavy-duty chrome rack to hold them and an upgrade to lithium batteries. We went from 460 watts of solar to 2,310 watts; a huge jump that should meet all our needs, including the ability to run air conditioning in our cabin at night off the batteries alone (no noisy generator needed).

We also installed a beefy cellular antenna and state-of-the art router. No more hoisting my cell phone to the top of the mast to catch a signal. Plus, we now have an AIS transmitter that broadcasts Halley’s position via satellite. This allows nearby ships to see us clearly on their chart plotters and, as a bonus, friends and family can track us online (various sites, for example https://www.vesselfinder.com/?mmsi=368212010).

Another high joy-yield fix is getting the stereo system working with a new amplifier. We’ve been rocking up the coast all day with 80’s tunes blaring. Right now, it’s David Bowie’s China Girl. Good times!