Everybody is busy. Bruno building LEGO, Viola painting with waterolors and Guenther and me replacing an porthole that started leaking.
And since I already had dirty hands, I grabbed the brush and paint and went over the deck to remove some rust. Soon we’ll have to get a few other items off the todo list (the steering chain and cable need a little attention, a winch on the mast is broken and some more painting).
Yesterday we said goodbye to our friends and sailed out of St. Davids Bay and to the east, to round the island of Grenada on the atlantic side.
Big mistake ! In the beginning we had 5Bft. that increased to a steady six after a while. The swell was quite enormeous and together with a current of two knots against us, it was too much. After two hours of tacking against, we turned back to have a few drinks with the friends we left in St. Davids bay.
So after a nice evening and a quiet night we’ll now give it another shot. This time, we take the west side of the island. Hehehe.
I always loved the pictures of ship’s decks before starting a big trip; when everything is covered with groceries. Well today we also received most of our refreshments for the next two months. Missing are only the fruits and vegetables that we’ll buy tomorrow at the market.
I also always wondered: Where are those yachties storing all that food ? – And today we also were confronted with that problem. We were running out of storage space and had to use a bed in the aft cabin to temporarily keep muesli, powdered milk, etc.
And finally a warning to our readers out there: We bought this lovely looking coffee with a nice sailboat on it’s cover. – It’s UNDRINKABLE !! Do yourself a favor and buy another brand.
It’s three o’clock in the afternoon and we’ve already been quite hardworking. After breakfast, Bruno went immediately to work with pre-school and today’s subject mathematics. After that the kids and Gui tried a new muffin recipe, decorated the pastries and immediately ate them.
In the mean time, I was up the mast to repair the remote compass and took measurement of our antenna mount where the active radar reflector should be rigged. The electronic compass is now finally working. And since yesterday our ships main compass has working illumination again and Bruno and me installed the last missing part for our desalinator. We’ll check on our way to Cabo Verde whether it really works.
Thanks to the answers of our readers, today I’ve done more tests on our batteries. I’ve tested all batteries while disconnected from the ship’s circuitry U1 is without load. U2 is with a 40watts load, measured after 30 seconds. Here come the facts:
Battery | U1 | U2 | ---------+----------+----------+ Main 1 | 12.62V | 9.19V | Main 2 | 12.72V | 9.62V | Main 3 | 12.71V | 10.70V | Main 4 | 12.52V | 11.39V | Start | 12.30V | 11.79V |
The main batteries are of the type: Effecta BTL-100 (specifications). These are 12V, 100Ah AGM batteries. The label says: cycle use: 14.4V-15V standby user: 13.6V-13.8V
The starter battery is a Vetus ‘marine’ battery of type lead-acid.
Our chargers were set as follows:
Windgenerator: off at 14.34V
Shore power: off at 14.40V (setting: ‘AGM’)
Solar charger: off at 14.30V, standby: 13.8V (setting: ‘GEL’)
Alternator: off at 13.80V, secondary regulation: 13.90V
For me this means that the chargers were set correctly and even a little too conservative. As the batteries say cycle, max. 15V – I could’ve set the solar charger to ‘AGM’ with a peak voltage of 14.70V. Hmmm. Any more input before I run off in search for new batteries tomorrow ?
This is actually one week old. – The first minutes of bord school with Bruno, Viola and Gui. Enjoy !
