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Adagio (U.S.A.) #12 12/08-12/09 2018: Saturday/Sunday



#12: 12/0812/09 2018: Saturday/Sunday.

Rocky and Bullwinkle ... Rocky Mountain High (or oysters) ... Rocky Balboa .. Rocky Road ice cream .... I'm just thinking of things other than the ride that are 'rocky' :)

We've been adjusting course and sail set to keep apparent wind and so far we have been pretty fortunate to ~have~ wind, even if at some points it has been very little and very inconsistent. Still, we're doing OK and have marked a couple of "firsts" on this trip. This is now the longest leg we've ever sailed, and the longest time under sail without using the motor. Very cool indeed! I know that we would all like to try and see if we can compete the whole sail without lighting up the engine, but time will tell what happens when we get closer in to the islands and local effects get involved. Also, I can see that if the finish line is only a few miles away it will be very hard to be patient if there is no wind :) For now, I am quite happy having only used diesel for charging the batteries and making water.


And .. on that note .. here's one for the books ...

It is my "routine" to keep the batteries charged up. I start the generator at 0900 when I come on my shift and will run it for as long as it takes to charge us back to a reasonable level. Sometimes 2 hours, sometimes more... and sometimes a couple of hours more when I make water. Then, I repeat the cycle 12 hours later at 2100 (but don;t make water).

Last night, I noted that the batteries were a bit lower than usual (heavy autopilot workout, and it's starting to get warmer so the fridge and freezers are working harder (well, and there are four of getting into them now:)). I decided on a three hour run, started the genset and then went to the helm for my shift, which is also three hours.

When my watch ended I went to shut the generator off and noted that the batteries had not charged.. as a matter of fact they were now precariously close to 'critical' discharge. I puzzled it out for all of 2 seconds before I realized that I had simply not started the battery charger after starting the generator. How simple is that?? Ooops!! Now we were going to have to live with the generator noise for even longer .. and in fact it took nearly 5 hours to bring the batteries back up to snuff.

Thankfully, these are new batteries and I did spend the extra Euro to buy good ones that should tolerate a serious discharge state every so often. As I write now, we are happy again and I have a new rule about not running off until I can check the charging status. I won't let that particular oversight happen again!

Isn't it amazing how easy it is to forget such a simple thing when you think you've got it ingrained? If I hadn't caught it, we could have had some serious troubles by discharging the battery bank too deeply and I, for one, am not in the mood to buy a new set of batteries this month. I have other toys I want for Christmas :)



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