Are you looking for a used boat for a long trip?
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 31 Aug 2014 04:27
Let me tell you a bit on how things can communicate in this world wide web.
Since we wrote about our monday meeting on what to do next we got a small waterfall of reactions.
First of all, let's put it this way, something expressed by Bill on Sunrise (as usual he is a great writer!):
"Like a cow in a pasture with no fences, when everything is possible it is hard to choose. I look forward to hearing more about that."
One of our readers Winni suggested that we write to Leon Schultz, the author of "The missing Centimeter" and also the owner of a business called Regina Sailing.
Leon has been out with his family on a long sailing journey and now they are back. His business (reginasailing.com) deals with refurbishing Hallberg Rassy boats and he is also doing charter trips in the northern hemisphere.
Leon took a great effort and wrote us a wonderful mail about his experience with families wanting to sell their "ocean vessel" and down scale.
He strongly advices us to think twice, he has seen to many families regretting the move. Well that if anything has made us the "cow in a pasture with no fences".
I admit we are fortunate and privileged to have a choice at all.
I look at the guys here that have put together a "boat". By tying long bamboo sticks they have created a floating platform. Then they push themselves forward with a long stick, on the reef they sit on a box and fish. It works of course, but when they pass our spaceship I just cannot believe the difference in standard of living and the different challenges we face.
To talk about selling Salsa has felt like going behind her back- so we will see what happens. She is still for sale and IF we get a good deal we might still go for it.
Life is a journey...
Our batteries seem to be in shape now after the equalizing process. You learn something new all the time...
I had no idea you had to do that to batteries on regular basis to keep them in shape.
Equalizing means that you bring the batteries up to 15 volts (!!) (now this is wet cell batteries, and pls check with you manufacturer before you do it), you monitor the temperature as they will "boil". It is also important to shut off everything in the system so you do not burn your equipment on board.
Ventilation is a must and no open fires! The gas from the batteries is highly explosive. Since we have a Mastervolt system we had to stick with the way the software works, and it did not work...
Mastervolt charges in 3 phases: Bulk-Absorption-Float
It wont allow you to equalize before you reach the Float stage.
Well with that wonderful powersupply we had from the toilet in the "marina" we had the power cut off for different reasons. And every time it was cut off the system started from the beginning.
The night before yesterday I knew we had to leave the dock on saturday morning and at 2 in the morning we had reached the Float stage. So I started to do everything as stated in the manual, but no, the batteries would not move up one volt. Searched w Google and found out that nobody had managed to equalize with the Master Volt. So next on the agenda was to override the system and make it "boil" any way. I managed to do that and by 3.30 in the morning a wonderful smell of explosive gas was coming out of the batteries.
They literarily boiled in the cells. I did not dare to go to bed and as the morning light came out I took the dinghy to shoot some pictures of the floating wrecks around here.
By 8 I closed the process and reprogrammed the Master Volt to perform regular charging cycles and 30 minutes later we were asked to leave the dock...
Today it looks like we have good power, so we keep our fingers crossed, we might have a better capacity now.
By the way, if you are a boat owner with a charging management system, check that your solar cells or windpower does not fool you system to charge less. The reason is that when the sun comes out a cloudy day it will raise the voltage in the system and your little manager thinks it is time to stop charging.