Eastern Caribbean « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Batteries !!

by steve, on July 16th, 2009 (Bamboozle, Grenada, Jackster, Sweet Caroline, Where II)

Wednesday night was burger night at Clarks Court Bay Marina. For us it was but a short walk from the boat so we had to go. Where II were there during happy hour. We also bumped into John and Caroline from Sweet Caroline.

We also made some new friends. Two British couples were there. Jackie and Dave from Jackster as well as Jamie and Lucy from Bamboozle. They’re both heading west in a similar time frame to us and hanging around Grenada for a bit so hopefully we’ll meet up again from time to time.

Today the focus switched to equalizing some of the drive batteries. I hooked up three batteries in parallel, disconnected our house batteries and used the jump leads to connect the charger to the paralleled drive batteries. The jump leads warmed up fairly quickly so I soon took off one of the batteries. I took hydrometer readings of the problem cells every hour.

For the first couple of hours there was no apparent change in the readings. Ominously, unlike the good cells, the problem cells were showing little if any bubbling from the high voltage being applied to the batteries.

In time, the worst cell began to bubble and as the hours progressed the hyrdometer readings went from terrible to not so terrible. After 7-8 hours the batteries were quite hot so I stopped the session.

Towards the end of this period I took detailed measurements of the house bank. These had been on trickle charge overnight following their equalization and had since been disconnected from each other and any load. In theory they should all have been reading around 12.7 volts. Three read 12.6V and one read 12.4V. The latter battery and one of the others had poor hydrometer readings on single cells (out of six). I tried equalizing the 12.4V battery on its own. It sucked up current and became hot quite quickly. Not good news. I then tried the other house battery with poor readings on it’s own. The poor cell improved quickly but the battery heated up even quicker. It never produced a good reading but it was heading in the right direction.

That is where I’ve left it for today. Part of me feels these batteries have been somewhat abused at some point in their past and we’re now seeing the results. Part of me realizes there is more to do to learn the extent to which they can be recovered. It seems that focussing on individual batteries has a greater opportunity for recovering bad cells so that’s what I’ll do tomorrow.

Also accomplished today was cleaning out the chain locker, removing the old chain and putting in the new and switching the anchors. Unfortunately we don’t have the right sized shackle to connect the new anchor to the chain so we may have to got to town tomorrow to pick one up.

We also were introduced to Mick and his son Ian who live aboard their boat nearby. They’re supposed to be terrific at boat work. We dicussed our need to install a second anchor roller and windlass. They’ll do more work than our professional quote for less so we’re lining them up. This also means we need to get our new windlass ordered and shipped along with all the other stuff we need which is much cheaper in the US.

No other projects closed off today but did some research including, if it comes to it, replacing all our batteries. Haven’t come to that decision yet but it may happen so I may as well be ready for it.

Aside. It’s now mid-July and so far we have had NO tropical storms in the Caribbean even though hurricane season started in June. This doesn’t correlate to having fewer storms but locals are saying it feels cooler this year and that means there’s less energy in the system. That could mean we’ll be unmolested down here in Grenada. Lets hope so. Having said that, looking at the NOAA website just now I see a depression forming on a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic and, for the first time this year outside of the gulf of Mexico, there is a warning. Something to watch.

Batteries

by steve, on July 15th, 2009 (Arctic Tern, Bristol Rose, Grenada, Where II)

We’re now tied up at Clarkes Court Bay marina and have started a full equalization of all our batteries. We’ve already done this to the house banks a couple of times this year but never for as long as I’d have liked. This time should see us through a good stint without having to do this again.

My plan for the drive banks are to take three batteries at a time and parallel them up to make a 12V bank which I’ll then substitute for the house bank and repeat the equalization process. This also allows me to take the house bank off line and let them settle for 24 hours when I’ll give them a full test. That way I’ll know if I have any issues to attend to.

Other projects have been attended to today.

I have fitted an on/off valve on the pipe that allows water from one water tank to overflow and fill the other. This allows the water maker to top off both tanks. However, this does represent a risk. If for some reason our port tank becomes contaminated, this system could push the contaminated water over to the other tank and we could lose potability on both sides. Not a big issue when we’re close to somewhere to sail to and work on the problem but this could be a literal killer in the ocean. I had thought of buying a bunch of jerry cans to keep spare water in case this happened but in one of my many talks to Jim we cottoned onto the idea of simply isolating the tanks from each other. The valve I have put in allows us to do just that. So in the future, before setting off on a big trip, we’ll fill both tanks then isolate the port tank. We’ll live off the starboard tank refilling it when necessary. If we lose that, we can go over to the port tank and ration. As a backup, backup we have one jerry can, the water in the hot water tank and we’re ordering a handheld water maker for last resort. This project won’t be closed until I have tested the system to be sure no air locks are being created and water does still flow between the tanks when it’s supposed to.

Another item off the list is fixing the fast button for our electric winch. Turned out a connection had come loose. I squeezed the connector with my pliers and refitted it. It’s now on nice and tight.

I’ve also installed the replaced shackle for the topping lift line. It still looks a bit small and I’m not happy. Where II is in the bay near us. I may go over and look at how there’s is done before I close this one off.

Now that we’re on shore power we tested all four air conditioners. We had these put on for the years we expected to be in charter – not really for our selves. They need to be checked on and used from time to time just to keep them in order. I found two of them not working. In both cases it was issues with the sea water cooling line and in both cases I managed to fix the problem.

Trish and Rob from Bristol Rose popped over earlier to talk WiFi and other boaty things. Well – that’s what Rob and I talked about. It was during my showing him my AIS setup that I was able to spot the problem with my foot switch for the electric winch.

It’s getting near to 5pm which is happy hour here. Looks like we’re going. It’s also burger night tonight which was fun last time we did this about 2 months ago. Almost a different crowd by now. We know Hunter and Devi from Arctic Tern are here as Hunter helped us dock and we bumped into Devi earlier. Their boat is docked on the next pier. I believe they’ll be at burger night too. I’ll have to make sure I’m near Devi as last time I was able to swap my coleslaw for her chips.

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I have a new fan

by steve, on July 14th, 2009 (Grenada)

Another day of progress. This morning we went ashore to drop off our empty bottles, go to the ACE store to pick up some fuel filters and other small bits, have brunch at NY Finest Bagels, go back to brewery to collect 2 crates of Ting and a crate of Carib and, on the way back, visit Budget Marine for some other small parts.

Back on the boat project work continued. With my head in the port bilge I tried to figure out why the bilge pumps don’t clear out enough water from the bilge. It seems the some of the water sucked out always makes it back in to the effect that in rolly anchorages, the bilge pump (and alarm) goes off from time to time. We can remedy the situation by manually pumping out the dregs from the bilge but I’d like a better solution. I tried rearranging the two pump feeds a little but not sure if this will help.

One project started and completed today was installing a second fan in our cabin. This will benefit both of us as I now get my own fan and Helen no longer has to share. These little projects always take a few hours because of the difficulty of running wires from place to place but this one is done. I was keen to complete this project before going on the marina tomorrow where we are likely to have less natural breeze.

Back in Prickly Bay

by steve, on July 13th, 2009 (Grenada)

This morning I spent time researching a good place to buy our second windlass as well as a number of other smaller items we need.

Later, we dinghied into town to go shopping for bits and food. Actually we went in twice because the first time we discovered we’d forgotten the dinghy lock key and our list of things to buy. We managed to get the parts we need for the stalled projects as well as a new bucket and washing up bowl (which we accidentally threw into a bin but fortunately recovered an hour later). We also managed to find some heavy duty jump leads which we can use to reduce the amount of battery shifting when we come to equalize the drive batteries. Using this lead I can equalize the starboard bank as they are near enough to the Xantrex charger to do this. The port batteries may need to be moved.

Back on the boat I completed the 72V/12V override project as well as the watermaker refilter project. Helen helped out with the water maker project as it involved drilling into metal and it’s easier to have someone vacuuming away the metal shards as they’re produced. She also closed off the six monthly job of putting vaseline on the dodger zippers.

We then set sail for Prickly Bay timing our departure for the easterly current and managed to sail most of the way until the current turned against us. We may have set off a little late. On the way I examined the way the new lazy bag line fell over the second reefing line and it looked good so I can close off this project too. It feels as though we’ve been quite productive today. The only downside was losing the lure I caught the tuna with. The wire leader had been ether chomped or worn through. This stuff is not supposed to break so I’ll pin my imagination on a monster from the deep with big, shiny teeth.

Now we’re in Prickly Bay. We need to dispose of all our empty bottles at the factory while replenishing our supplies of Ting and beer. Helen found a few more Caribs tucked away this afternoon so all is not lost.

In the morning we’ll take a look at the project list and decide which ones to focus on next. Now it’s time to just relax.

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Bow Lockers

by steve, on July 12th, 2009 (Grenada)

After spending an hour or two looking up part references and potential alternates (in readiness of future spares purchasing) I was able to borrow Jim’s jigsaw. This allowed us to get on and do the bow locker project.

As mentioned before the bow lockers are pretty deep and difficult to get in an out. Consequently we use them little. They would be ideal to store trash or other light items if only we could just reach in.

Fortunately a ridge has been built into the hull presumably to allow a floor to be put in some time.

This is what we did this morning. The first bow locker floor took the longest simply because each piece of wood had to be measured, cut, inserted, (sometimes) modified before repeating the process with the next piece. We’ve had beautiful weather today with lots of sunshine. It made working outside pleasant except for when I had to go down into the lockers which were pretty hot and made for sweaty work.

The second bow locker was simpler as we could use the pieces from the first one to use as reference templates. The shapes and ladder placement were not quite the same size but close enough to make this much easier than the first.

The end result was very pleasing. We have already stored the spare pieces of wood and some spare fuel in the bow lockers. Another item struck of the list. 58 to go.

After clearing up, returning borrowed tools and having lunch we moved the boat outside the lagoon to get some fresher air. Helen has since been busy cleaning the deck and seat cushions while I’ve been checking on the anchor and catching up on computer work. It’ll be nice to relax a little soon. We picked up a couple of racks of ribs yesterday so these will go on the barbecue this evening. Mmmmm.

UPDATE. Major incident occurred. I took a bottle of beer from the fridge to celebrate today’s accomplishments and discovered it is the LAST ONE. I have some cans bought in Martinique which we use as backup but this is critical. Not only that, we ran out of Ting about 5 days ago. Good job we’re going to Prickly Bay tomorrow. I can go to the brewery outlet and pick up some more crates.

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