There’s something very satisfying about waking to the sound of the wind. Wind whistling through the rigging portends a good sailing day, or cool breezes at anchor.   Wind also makes our wind generator spin, and that whirring turbine means electrical power, produced without burning fossil fuels. Wind generators harness the free (and generally abundant) wind to top up our battery banks, which run virtually all our onboard systems – electronics, lights, refrigeration, water pumps. Without that power, we’d have to run the diesel engine a couple of times a day just to maintain the batteries. Independence from shore or diesel power is a very gratifying to a cruising sailor, especially as we’re trying to keep Kinetic as “green” as possible.

Our Silentwind 400 wind generator was out of commission for two weeks while we awaited a new controller unit to be shipped to our cruising location from the Silentwind headquarters in Portugal (note: exceptional customer service). The silence was disconcerting, and the necessity to run the diesel engine was irritating, noisy and expensive. We still had a good solar panel, but it just wasn’t enough – we realized how much we relied on the wind/solar combination to meet our energy requirements. Now the new controller has been installed, and our wind generator is back in business – converting the tradewinds to amps, and feeding those amps to our grateful battery bank. We’re so glad to hear that whirring wind generator again!