Blip in the Grid

There was a blip in the grid Wednesday night. It went down for about 5 minutes or so. That doesn't sound too bad. However, it caused the Berlin NH biomass plant to shut down. Locals tell me that all they could hear in town was the boilers blowing off steam. Last I heard they were still trying to get the plant back up and on-line.

Most of my house was running on my solar electric system at the time. We only noticed there was something wrong when the Internet went down. So for me there are two messages. The grid is pretty fragile when even a short outage can cause big problems. The second thing is that it's good to have my own power system up and running again.

One of my blog readers, M. Silvius, recommended Lee Hughes' "The Biggest Boat I could Afford." I was able to find a good used copy of the book. It just came in the mail today. It's the story of his sailing journey up the U. S. coast in a 16 foot sailing dinghy. Can't wait to read it.

I ordered some sailboat stuff and it's starting to arrive. Today it was 150 feet of nylon anchor rode with a length of stainless steel anchor chain. I attached it to a good sized Danforth anchor in nearly new condition. That should make a good backup anchor.

I started to fill out paperwork to put insurance on my sailboat. There was little need for insurance when it was just on my little lake. However, I want insurance for my trip. I need to go down to the boat and get the hull number. That's the last bit of information needed for the insurance company. Most marinas say you need insurance if you want to stay. No one has ever asked to see my insurance papers, but why take the chance? Insurance is cheap enough. It saved me a $9400 salvage fee when my other boat was sunk.

So, things are moving along. Checking items off the list.

-Sixbears