Floating on a Boat: battery power

People who know about battery power on a boat will tell you the pinnacle of performace is floating the battery charge as often as possible. Often this advice comes from an armchair. It is easy in a marina with shore power but it takes a lot of generated power. For me, for example, everytime the vessel is under main engine, the opportunity to achieve float is immediately afterwards. The alternator is 63Ah, which is twice as much as the Victron charger from the generator. 

For AGM batteries, the charging process is: bulk charging starts at current battery charge state and goes until about 26.5v, absorption goes from 26.5v to 28.4v or so and then the elusive float is when this number suddenly diminishes to around 26.5v. When you switch off the charging, the operating voltage will fall to around 25.6v. The result is 26v is generally considered to be fully charged for AGMs. Most good deep discharge AGMs can go down to 80% depth of discharge (DOD), which is 22 volts. I would not do this. The furtherest DOD I go to is 90%, 24v, which many unusefully consider to be 50% discharged (NOT DOD). Even that is low for me, because the big power consumers of battery power in boats are refrigeration and freezers, which are not always very efficient, and that suddenly takes the volts down below 23.5v, not even considering bilge pumps. I try to maintain a charge of 95 per cent.

Dominica, Portsmouth and Roseau

We anchored in Portsmouth in the North and Mėro halfway down and moored south of Roseau.

My wife thinks it is great. Nothing much happens in Portsmouth; we visited a small waterfall and swam in its pool, had an unnotable and slow lunch before trekking across orange clay and visiting a whimsical chocolate factory. The anchor held. There were a few pubs with dull conversations and advice on nothing much in particular. The highlight is Alexis, the boatman, ch16, for services. The bread was not a highlight either, nor was the jazz festival.

Less happened in Mėro and St. Joseph. There was only one functioning pub with nobody in it where my wife and Will enjoyed their dialogue with the old paint. Good holding in sand and plenty of people in the streets to talk to. Nowhere to eat.

Roseau was more interesting. We ended up with our anchor firmly tied to a steel wreck in Pringle bay before the coastguard kindly fleeced us to successfully lift it. Apparently this work is rarer but more interesting than taking ropes off propellers but less interesting than the even scarcer catching traffickers of various types. We were free by 1600hrs but took two hours to wrestle sufficient cash out of rare reluctant ATMs to pay.

An hour later we were moored by Sea Cat, ch16, at the Anchorage Hotel's moorings,  to be molested by the neighbouring power boat that  we powered off at 2100hrs, with millimeters to spare, requiring subsequent watches all night and moving to another mooring the next day.

Shopping in Roseau is limited, perpetually marred by lack of cash from under powered ATMs. Nature is difficult to monetise to buy your car. Everyone has the same leaves with no market. The most impressive feature for me was the Trafalgar Falls. They are very difficult to photograph, together. There is also at least one hot stream. You'll have to find it. 

It is also reported that geothermal power is going to replace the remaining diesel power and supply surplus to Guadaloupe and Martinique. A good plan to be tested soon. The day was however destroyed by a music cacophany at full volume, full speed and without texture at all that went on until daybreak. Time to move on to Martinique.

 

Fruit, Dead on Arrival

This is a cruising boat, but there seems no 10,000+ mile male or female crew members can resist doing anything else other than buying the brightest and prettiest laid out red tomatoes and the brightest yellow bananas in well-supplied shops and markets. These items are called perishables, and they are, fast; and they are legends in the distribution business. If they are a perfect red or yellow, they have no more than half a day before they are too ripe. Tomatoes are soft and bananas get black speckles on the outside and are going brown on the inside. Then I find them wasting space in the rare and expensive atmosphere of a chiller or fridge. Both should be bought green, and not kept in a fridge.

BTW, the other common wasting fruit are the avocado and papaya (pawpaw) both  ripe today and dead tomorrow; and don't ever buy mangoes that are soft to the touch, they have already passed on. 

Music and Insects, the real reasons for Airconditioning

I have airconditioning on my boat, which since 2004 (est.) has not worked. What I found, on purchase, a Climma evaporator in the saloon with the controller missing, some chocolate block and a variable inline engine room fan attached to the radiator with a bit of plywood. The direction of the ducting was incorrect and as a unit it did not work. On further examination, the fan was jury rigged on to the radiator and was actually finished. Dometic offered a replacement evaporator for GBP8,000 last year (2022) at Southampton - Dometic is not an option because they do not provide spares support for their toilets.

Fortunately, I sailed across to Antigua and found A Zero Degrees, who fix airconditioning systems, outside Nelson's Dockyard in a small cyan-coloured office with Anthea, Marlon and Van. Like all of us, I have substantial experience of idiots providing minimal engineering skills to the marine industry at vastly inflated prices and I am suspicious from the beginning of discussions. No, they could not get a replacement evaporator for eight weeks but the price was sensible and for the correct unit, I was flying through UK and they had one in two weeks, but A Zero had the controller board and capacitors, which was a good sign, indicating they really were in the business.

This is a long story so some abbreviation: the compressor needed the hot/cold solenoid valve replaced and the sea water pump replaced for 50/60Hz operation, so it now works (on both). The forward cabin evaporators needed some attention and the control panel was replaced together with a  number of capacitors. All done and fixed. Great job by A Zero, Antigua. Thank you.

But this is not the story. Neither I nor my wife need or want airconditioning, heating is another matter, but it is not even about that. The reason you need airconditioning is two fold. First, in many anchorages and marinas there is a US$200 4,000W amplifier that plays appalling music until two in the morning, and you know it. Second, there can be insects everywhere there is a light source, and you know that too. These are the two main reasons you need airconditioning. Also, you will get your batteries to float for the first time in many months; that you did not anticipate. 

Have a good one! Best,

Terre-de-Bas

I am pleased to announce that The Borderline is an official selection for the SOTAMBE International Film and Arts Festival (SOTAMBE IFAF) to be held in Kitwe in The Copperbelt from 22nd September. I look forward to seeing you there.

ZedPipo: an Introduction

‘You are what you do’, a well-worn phrase that, rightly or wrongly, seeks to encapsulate the identity of an individual within the confines of a profession, job or social role. Capturing identity in a photograph, or indeed a painting, creates a caricature that attempts to summarise an element of a subject. But does it capture their character?

Read more

Postcards from Zambia: A New Photographic Response

Although oppressive times may be becoming scarcer, albeit remaining in living memory, it is time for a change in outlook; there have been developments in the mechanics of photography: a transition from film to digital photography enabling the simple and instantaneous production of images for newspapers, magazines, poster-prints, slideshows and websites, mobile phones, social media or the photograph album; photography is more a media for the masses than ever before.

Read more