Day 173 – At Last
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sat 4 Jun 2022 07:10
Course: ESE Speed: 6 knots
Wind: NNE Force 4
Sea: slight Swell: ESE 2 m
Weather: sunny, mild
Day’s Run: 114 nm
At last. At last. At last. The wind has eased and backed into the north and we are now beam reaching to the east, the direction in which we wish to go, under full sail making a highly satisfactory six knots. We have enjoyed a comfortable night and made a respectable day’s run of 114 miles.
This forenoon, after a sating breakfast of pancakes, I used the fair weather to do a few chores. I have cleaned the stove/oven and done some fault finding with the house battery bank. I separated the two batteries and charged them individually with the genset and found that one was taking a lot more charge than the other. This led me to suspect a faulty connection between the two batteries which I duly found. I doubt, however, that this is the ultimate problem. Rather, I suspect the batteries over time have been overcharged and lost their electrolyte. Being AGM batteries the electrolyte cannot be replaced as with conventional lead-acid batteries and once the electrolyte has been lost the batteries are essentially dead. For now I have switched boat’s power over to the engine batteries (which aren’t needed for the engine seeing as the engine is also deceased). I set the engine batteries up to be capable of being back up house batteries so as long as I don’t discharge them too far they should get us home okay.
The forecast is for the wind to freshen and back further into west and then SSW later tomorrow. I am looking forward to being able to run before a fresh breeze again. With a bit of judicious management and that most essential item, a bit of luck, I am hoping that we might be able to carry a fair breeze for the rest of the way to Adelaide.
All is well.