Day 2 - Oxford MD to St. Thomas - In the Gulf Stream
Blue Note
Marco M.
Sun 15 Nov 2015 17:09
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Date: Sunday 15/11/15 - Time: 12:10 EDT Position 36:16.626N 74:13.817W COG 141M SOG 5.7kt, Wind 6T 10 kt, Temperatures: Air 18 C, Sea 24.1 C Barometer: 1029.3 hPa Last 24h Sailed Distance: 145 Last 24h Decrease Distance on rhumb line: 129 NM Sailed distance since departure: 265 NM Time since departure: 1d 20h 10m Average Speed since departure: 5.65 kt Average VMG since departure: 5.11 kt Average VMG speed last 24h: 5.38 Intention: sail to St. Thomas Distance to End on rhumb line: 1134 NM ETA: Tuesday May 24, 2015 Detailed Track (50 is the maximum number of point, i.e. once the last point reaches 50, the last point always is 50): http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP This morning at 8 am we entered the Gulf stream and the water temperature in an half hour raised from 10C to 24C. Wind is weak and irregular, so we are motor-sailing with the bow pointing south but a course over ground to the East because of the strong current. During the night we had an erratic charging of the battery with the alternator. At first all was working well with the alternator producing up to 110A of current at 14.5V, but then soon after, the voltage was dropping to 12.9 V and stay there for a while until suddenly the voltage was increasing again for a short while before dropping again. Because now on Blue Note the Balmar 614 alternator control is mounted by the companion steps, covered by an hand craft case made of teak and with a window for reading the display, it appeared that the battery alternator temperature was 18C while the battery temperature was indicated as 50C. Clearly when re-locating the control I had plug the alternator temperature sensor into the slot for the battery temperature and vice versa. Plugging the sensor into the right location fixed the problem. Moreover now thanks to the also newly installed blower bringing cold air from the outside to the alternator, the alternator while outputting near 90A continually was reaching a maximum temperature of only about 75C. Below the 90C safety temperature at which the control reduce the alternator output in order to prevent the alternator to be damaged by the high temperature. Before installing the blower the controller was reducing power from the alternator and increasing the overall time for charging the batteries.  Duct to cool down the alternator  Box, with view window, to cover the alternator control. |