Lots to learn

While the captain in in Florida and N. Carolina taking care of business it falls to me to maintain Milagro's on board systems. There were briefings by the captain before his departure. Still, in the past week I have discovered how much I do not know about the operations of this sailboat. From past experience, which is spotty and distant at best, I can winch a sail and steer the boat as long as we are in open water.  But being responsible for making sure the batteries are charged and the bilge is empty are considerably more complicated that I had realized.  Whenever we sailed in the past the captain took care of all of that. I have lots to learn!
For example, there is shore power which occasionally fails when someone accidentally kicks the power cord when boarding. There are 12 volt and 125 volt systems on board; the lights run on 12 volts and there are outlets for both 12 and 125, side by side. Our power also comes from our wind generator as well as solar panels, and it is now my duty to watch the remote display to see if the voltage is up to snuff and if not, to turn the battery charger on (another panel). Then there is an amp meter which needs to be monitored.  Additionally, the captain installed a bilge pump monitor which tells us how often the bilge pump runs and would, if it ran too long, sound an alarm. Then there are other duties such as washing the decks,  filling the water tanks, and monitoring the vhf radio in addition to the usual housekeeping and laundry duties...let's just say I do keep busy. And with the captain away, busy keeps me happy!

Deck swabbing, one of the duties.

If I have made errors in explaining my duties, I'm sure the captain will send me some gentle email reminders.
What I have realized is that I need to learn a lot more about the running of this boat, on deck as well as below, so I can be a real first mate and a good deck hand.  And I will.