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From: Jim Lynch (no email)
Date: Tue Sep 04 2001 - 16:00:45 EDT
Went down to the boat this weekend. Actually got to take it out to
sail. Had a enough people on board to get it back in the slip. When I
got there Friday night, I noticed the Link panel showed the batteries,
both banks, were "charging". I killed the charger and watched the
voltage on both banks go to abou 5 volts within seconds. Pulled up the
sole and checked the water. All batteries boiled dry, hot and bulged
out. I realized that I had left the switch in the parallel position so
both banks were connected. I'm guessing that one of the cells is/was
weak (they all are now 8( ) and the charger was trying it's heart (pun
intended) out to get it to come up to charge.
Lesson learned. Don't leave the charger on. If the bilge pump kills
200+ amp hour battery bank, I've either got to get to the boat more
often and/or I've got lots bigger problems. I've got a float only
charger I'll take down the next time.
The lady that ran into our boat was cleaning her boat Monday. Sue
walked by her boat a number of times, but couldn't catch her eye. She
appeared to be avoiding eye contact. I was down below most of the
morning, doing plumbing work so didn't get up on the deck until later.
Her hubby saw me on deck hoisting the dink up, since I couldn't put it
on the davits his wife destroyed, and wandered over. He introduced
himself and apologized for the damage and asked if the insurance company
was taking care of me. I assured him it was, but didn't bore him with
the history, since it worked out OK. We talked a bit and finally he
called to his wife to come on over. She sheepishly did and immediately
started apologizing all over again. I quickly got her to change the
subject since she was obviously uncomfortable. We had a pleasant chat.
Long enough that I've got a sun burn on my back that I hadn't planned
for. They ran a B&B on an island in Lake Erie before retiring to south
Georgia.
Sailing was great. Well OK, not a lot of wind. Perhaps as much as 9-10
knots apparent on a close reach. Sometimes 1-2 on a broad reach, but it
was nice to be out in the water finally.
Engine temp was running a bit high. I had cleaned the strainer before I
left so that wasn't the problem. It did have a fish in it. First time
I've caught a fish from that boat. 8) When I got back, I stuck my
finger in the heat exchanger and it came up brown, but not from
antifreeze, but sludge. I had the marina flush the cooling system and
replace the antifreeze before leaving Florida. Either they didn't do a
good job, it crudded up again or they didn't bother doing it at all
(most likely, considering the other work they charged me for and didn't
do). I put in perhaps a couple of quarts of coolant. I don't know if
that was enough to cause the problem or not. Maybe the water intake is
plugged with critters. I'll have to borrow a tank and take a look.
I put up a new halyard. Replced the main rope/wire with an all rode
one. Much nicer to work with.
Life is getting better. The project list is not growing as fast as it
was, in fact if this keeps up, the project list will actually start
shrinking in May of 2005. Of course that depends on me being able to
get to the boat every other weekend of my life. Replacing the batteries
exausted one day's worth of energy. Almost a day's worth of time too.
I'd planned to make up new battery cables, since some of mine are not in
the greatest shape, until I went to the store. If I replace just one of
the 4 cables it will cost about $100. The wire I need is priced at $7 a
foot. Think I'll back off of the decision to use marine wire. I'll
just do a real good job of sealing the connectors.
Life is good..
Regards and apologies to those who were bored.
Jim.
PS, earlier today I send an email to the list asking for assistance in
finding something to use to ty down the holding tank. I've not seen
that request pop up here. Did I miss it or didn't it get to the list?
It's in my "Sent" folder, so I know I wasn't dreaming.
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