CAPTAIN'S LOG
SEA DATE 1 MAY 2009
Virgins. St. Maarten. Boat work
Dear all,
It has been such a long time since putting finger(s) to keyboard (as opposed to pen to paper) that I have nearly forgotten how this damned thing works.
Since leaving Bonaire and our arrival at the Spanish Virgins (quite the oxymoron really - bit like ‘Microsoft Works’) we cruised both the British and the American Virgins. Jane has already covered that lot on our blog site so I don’t intend boring you with repetition I say, repetition I say. HOWEVER - we had a lot of fun, met up with some good party folk that of course Jane enjoyed while I slid back into my shell.
We had some problems with charging our batteries en route - when we left Curacao, neither of the engine alternators were charging. Interestingly, I pulled out the big one (the alternator) while we were at Road Harbour in the British Virgins and had it tested and it was okay. My big ‘un has the potential to put out 140 amps but that number reduces drastically as the batteries fill up. It will usually start off at 90 amps or so and drop down to 30 to 40 when the batteries have more ‘amps’ running around inside them. We have 9 batteries with 100 amps each for a total of 900 amp hours. So I then get Mr. Electrician on board who diagnoses the problem as incorrect wiring between the alternator and the regulator. He changes the wires around and we are till only putting out 5 amps (read back a little). Even more interesting is when we had our electrical guy at St. Maarten pull it out (the alternator) it was stuffed (knackered, munted), so we threw $80 at it and it worked. Not really sure how that happens.
Its sod, (say it aloud and you will get it) but we find that if we just grab a handful of drinking vouchers and throw them at parts of the boat, they sometimes start to work. Then again, sometimes they don’t. Guess some of the drinking vouchers are tainted and don’t work.
Where was I. Batteries. Charging. Boring but important. From an earlier epistle you may recall that we threw a lot of drinking vouchers on a new roof and filled it with solar panels. These solar panels, four of them, are rated at 150 watts each. For a 12 volt system they will potentially produce just over 12 amps for each solar panel. This is the good bit because when you divide the 12 volts into the 150 watts, you get 12.5, and that is where the amps come from. Clever stuff. There are also ohms, but that is all elementary my dear Watson, so I won’t bore you with it. Yes I will - the ohms are the restrictive thingies like the size of wire that takes the amps down through them. The wire that is. Bit like the size of a drain and the water that goes down it. The pressure of the water is like the volts. The bigger the wire, the easier it is for the amps to go cruising. Bigger drain? More water.
Back to the solar panels. We are relying on our solar panels to fill up our batteries with amps, but they too are not well. We have them wired in pairs, 2 on each side of the boat so although they can put out up to 12.5 amps per solar panel, or up to 25 amps per side, they will usually put out 16 to 18 per side when the boom is not shading one set.
Problem - they are putting out half that. So we are only getting 8 or so in when it is sunny. Not enough.
We arrive at St. Maarten and start work on the boat. For the social side of this please refer to Jane’s blog site as she is the social side. I merely crawl out of my shell and fix things and then go back again.
Out I crawl and start getting our work schedule organised.
First job is to find out why the starboard sail-drive unit is losing oil. That is on the right side of the boat and the sail-drive is the bit that hangs down below the boat and directly under the engine and turns the propellor. There is no long drive shaft. This is just an overgrown outboard engine with a rubber seal (arf arf) wrapped around the outboard leg to stop the water getting into the boat. We lift the boat, have that all sorted by getting a mechanic on to the boat and throwing more drinking vouchers at him. To do this he takes off the propellors, drains the oil, changes different seals at the same time, puts the propellors on and puts it all back together and we plop it into the water.
We leave the dock only to find that forward now makes it go backwards and astern makes it go forward.
Bugger.
Obviously not enough drinking vouchers .....
BUT - our Mr. Mechanic pays for the boat to be lifted out and changes the propellors and stuff so it all works. It turns out that the outfit at Curacao put the feathering props on arse about tit and to compensate, they turned the gear change unit at the driving station around 180 degrees. I know this as I had already taken the unit apart myself and had done a drawing showing how the cables connected to the unit. No question - it was put on back to front.
Fortunately they (the Mr. Mechanic Company) picked up the tab for the lift and the half days work for two men to diagnose the problem and fix it all up.
This was all done on the French side of St. Marten. We now toodle over to the Dutch side, St. Maarten. Not sure why they spell it differently. One of the countries can't spell.
Our works include fitting the new freezer panels that we had made up in California. I couldn’t fit them earlier as the company made 3 of the 5 the wrong size. We shipped them back from the British Virgins and picked them up at the US Virgins. After a lot of hassle, they obliged to pay for the FedEx courier both ways. Bruce, the guy I was dealing with avoided my questions such as ‘will you pick up the tab as it is your boo boo’. I do like it when people piss me about. Give ‘em enough rope and they will hang themselves. I gave him 2 weeks to avoid the issue and then emailed 2 of the senior Directors of the company. One Director forwarded my email to a 3rd who sorted out my man ‘Bruce’ and interestingly, all went rather well after that. The company is called Glacier Bay and they provide insulation panels for Nasa.
The panels are about 35 mm thick and and are a vacuum type. They have an ‘R’ value of 50 (thermal resistance value). The equivalent of about 250 mm of polystyrene. When I did the final fitting, I found that one panel had a side that was moving in and out. I figured it had run out of suck so obviously would not work.
Dash it all. (Bugger).
Fortunately, my man ‘Bruce’ was most enthusiastic about sorting my problem panel out. I called him on Thursday 11 am. Jane dropped it off at the nearby Fedex office (St. Maarten because it's Dutch) just after lunch and sent it ‘overnight’ to Oakland, California. I tracked it on the internet. It was in California at 0530 hours on Friday. At the Galcier Bay factory at 0845 hours. Being a true gentleman, I waited until 0900 hours before calling him. He was already on his way to see it. They repaired the panel and shipped it out the same day.
It was back at the St. Maarten Fedex office Monday noon.
Beaut I thought. Struth. What a bonza.
Mind you, no more excuses to the short blonde one for no bloody ice in her G and T.
Bother (Bugger).
We now have a beautiful freezer which to Jane’s joy, I can actually fit into. I haven’t asked why. Rather not. As an aside, we are told that if the ‘husband’ snuffs it while at sea, she can’t just toss me overboard. To get the insurance, she needs to provide the body. Interestingly, when Jane talks about this stuff, she uses the pronoun ‘husband’ and not ‘wife’. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
So now we are at St. Maarten. Check the spelling for the country. Big projects are to convert the Port (left) forward (forward) cabin into a bed for crew and sort out our electrical system. For the memory challenged (like moi) and for those who haven’t received earlier epistles, we had a major electrical short, starboard (right) side, between the alternator on the engine and the battery monitor. The previous company at St. Maarten called Electec (they obviously cran’t splell) put in a huge number of cables behind both panels in the engine compartments. The cable just rubbed through from too much pressure from other cables and ‘pooof’.
Gui of Atlantis Electronics along with his most able assistant Andy did a superb job. Andy is English and we kept him in the engine compartments for days on end, pulling our wires (as it were) and we fed him tea. He was happy. They simplified the wiring and fitted a series of bus bars to take all the heavy cables. I am guessing they removed about half a ton of excess wiring. The French certainly got the design of the boat right, but electics (Dutch spelling) is not exactly their forte. Not mine either, which is why we threw a bunch of drinking vouchers at Gui and tea at Andy. Gui also put in a new chart plotter with intergral radar plus an AIS system. All Furuno gear. AIS stands for Automatic Identification System. It is required on all ships. It sends out a signal so other boats can identify us, our size, course, speed etc. If it looks like we are getting close, we call them up on channel 16. Very useful.
Back now to the solar panels. Gui in his wisdom, checked the amps going into the batteries. Bugger all. (Not a lot). Checked the amps going through the wires before they popped into the first junction box. Lots of amps. Opened the junction box , disconnected all the wires and checked the amps again. Lots of amps. Reconnected the wires inside the junction box. Making sure that the screw tightening the wires together was nice and TIGHT. AND. LO AND BEHOLD. LOTSA AMPS.
Now I don’t like to speak badly about people, but the bloody moron (sorry Owen) that fitted the solar panels and did the wiring (see earlier regarding nasty short) just didn’t tighten the studs properly. What really pissed me off is that (1) I didn’t check them myself and (2) when Electec checked the panel several days ago, they couldn’t figure out the problem themselves.
Soooooooo, all I have to do now is fit the new trampoline that has now arrived from the US, have some jammers re-bedded and new halyards fitted. I have been putting this one off as the ‘non stretchy’ ones cost several arms and numerous legs. About the same stretch as wire. Means that when it blows like stink the sail stays flat and doesn’t over power the boat. So apart from overhauling the wind generator, fitting new life lines, making up a strap system to securely support the dinghy, fitting a removable wind screen, making up a stern line roller, adding cooktop pot holders so pots don’t slide around, fitting a new hot water tank just because Jane doesn’t like red water (you can never please SOME people) we are pretty well done.
In between all this we managed to do a little socializing, drinking, dining out, partying, snorkeling at an Island at the top of St. Marten (French spelling) and general carousing.
We are about to head across the Atlantic. First leg is from St. Maarten (certainly not english spelling) to Bermuda. We are fortunate to have two very dear friends from the Yacht Club with us. Cam and Kim. Cam can’t sit still, he always has to be repairing something. As luck would have it, they arrived several days before our departure date which will give us sufficient time for Cam to complete the balance of my projects. He is still talking to us as well. Well, he talks to Jane …
Departing from St. Marten (thats right, the French side) we will sail around the bottom of the Island, leaving St. Maarten (which is part of Holland) on our Port (left) side late afternoon. Going the other way around the top of the Island is shorter but the pass between the Islands is a tad bumpy and the wind is on the nose. Being a Gentleman, I don’t sail to windward.
Finally - crossing the Pond and on our first leg to Bermuda.
So you all don’t get too board (little boat joke) I am going to sign off now and put finger to keyboard later to complete the journey across the pond. Stay tuned to this channel.
Going back in my shell now.
Reminds me.
Two snails out cruising the grass for a bit of excitement and they come across a turtle.
The extrovert says to the other, lets go get some fun huh?
They slowly slide their way up on top of said turtle and wait, which snails are apt to do.
After an hour or so, the turtle sloooooooooowly rises, and gradually put his good foot forward
The extrovert snail yells to t’other …
“HERE WE GO .......... “
Signing off
Her Jane
Me Russell