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Real life really happens. Yeah, despite what the 6/49 Lottery ads tell you, there isn’t some crazy magical nirvana-type life that happens when you live on a sailboat. And social media? You are not helping! Yes, we have those fantastic, magical moments. Yes, we do. And they happen day-after-day at times. But normally? Most of the time? Yeah, it is regular life. Stuff breaks. Lots of stuff breaks. It rains. It is too windy one day and then not windy enough the next. We bang legs, arms, heads on whatever and barely notice. Oh the bandages we go through!
Just recently, I was chatting with a fellow cruiser in a very crowded laundry room. She asked how we liked living full time on the boat. My response? “Oh my gosh, we love it, love it, love it”. I paused as I thought back to the events of the morning and then quickly added “ish” (meaning “sort of”). It was honest. It was real. It hit the funny bone of every cruiser in that laundry room. They got it. It is a great life, for sure, but it isn’t protected from reality. So, what were the events of the morning? It began with trying to accomplish a few items off our to-do list. Simple enough. Mike was in our back cabin, adjacent to our battery display. We are plugged into shore power so our batteries should always be at 100%. That was the expectation as he quickly glanced at the battery display. But they weren’t. We were somewhere around 85%. Not super low in terms of lithium batteries but, as I said, we are plugged into shore power so anything less than 100% is weird. And curious. And frustrating. We immediately did a few tests of circuits and wires and it really seemed that our Xantrex battery charger had just decided to die an untimely death. Ugh. We stepped outside to clear our heads. We were wandering around the yard, talking to each other about this crazy battery situation, when a cruiser friend happened by. Mike gave a quick explanation of our charging issue and within half an hour we had a whole bunch of people on Wild Horses, including the yard manager who has the same battery charger as us. There was lots of chatter and various electrical testing tools were pulled out of pockets and bags. Reset buttons were pushed, electrical connections were tested, theories were put forward. The troubleshooting was in full bloom. But alas, no solution. We even went so far as to get a price quote for a new Victron charging unit which could be delivered within a week (we have a Victron sales dealer as one of our cruiser friends). At the end of the day, the decision was that the charger was dead but we should call Xantrex Client Support first thing the following morning just to leave no stone unturned. We went to bed that night feeling very tired. Very tired of things breaking and very tired of our bank account getting a full workout. The next morning at 9:00am we called Xantrex Customer Support. By 9:02am the issue was resolved. What????? It turns out that Mike had inadvertently pushed a button that changed the charging level of our Xantrex to 5 amps. Oops! The level was increased to 30 amps and, yeah, problem solved. We both smiled from ear to ear. Then we cancelled our order for that new Victron charger. And Mike promised to wear his glasses for all future button pressing of any kind 😉.
And where are we with our engine rebuild and eventual launch? Still waiting unfortunately. But all is fine. We are thinking of getting wheels attached to our hull just so we can still explore the world by sailboat. Hmmmm. 😊
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AuthorVictoria is a hiker, dog-lover, blog writer and planner extraordinaire. Oh, yeah and she is kind of fond of living on a boat. Categories
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March 2025
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