Held back by Easter

Posted On 17 April, 2014

Today is a celebration! Or at least, that’s what we crew might have hoped for.

You’d think we’d spend Peter’s birthday drinking beer and chilling out, but don’t be fooled. We were up even earlier than usual, cracking on with more jobs and also trying to get news of our delivery. Top of the list was to sort out battery charging rates.

The main battery issue in hotter climates is that the charge rate goes up. As they charge, the batteries give off hydrogen which is, of course, highly explosive. The guys who put this boat together thought of just about everything and they installed hydrogen alarms down by the batteries. It’s just as well they did, because the port-side alarm has been sounding off on its battery bank. To deal with this we have lowered the charger output from 2.35V per cell to 2.15 V (12 cells = 24V). The ambient temperature down there right now is between 35 and 38 degrees. The manuals include a chart which correlates temperature and volts per cell. This is key data for solving the problem while we have the time and while the boat is lying quietly at anchor.

Having cleared our consciences over the batteries, Matt and I sloped off to experiment with wake-boarding. We didn’t have the proper thing, so we had to improvise. The plastic bin we found failed miserably. Bad scene! Next, we resorted to towing the kayak behind the dink and trying to stand and surf in it. I don’t think that was the most successful exhibition ever seen in Mo’orea either…

We are planning to leave for Tahiti early in the morning so we can replace the fuel we’ve used and re-stock on food from the local supermarket. We are also hoping to make good the various spares consumed, such as light bulbs, pump service kits and the rest.

At last we have news of the replacement parts for the stabilizers, but they aren’t promising delivery before next Tuesday. Not much of a one-day turnaround! The reason given is that Tahiti has a public holiday over Easter. This includes the customs, who won’t be able to clear our package in time!

So, Tuesday is the earliest we can begin the second leg of our long voyage back to the UK…

Ben

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Well, Ben, what a tale! Looking at the delay in the context of history, I suppose you could say that you have the 19th century missionaries to thank for the Easter break in Tahiti. I’ll bet Captain Cook’s boys didn’t have any of these problems. On the other hand, I understand it’s a while since anyone went into the cooking pot in the South Seas, so I suppose you win some and you lose some.

Thanks for the heads-up on the battery charging. According to my dials, the genset on my boat is banging a good bit over 14volts into my 12volt banks. It is a lot less than 38 degrees in Beaulieu right now, but I think I might invest in a hydrogen alarm just in case.

Wish Peter a Happy Birthday for yesterday!

Tom

tomcunliffe.com