WHEN SHIP HAPPENS

I have one critical item on my Spring Outfitting list before bottom painting and  launching BIANKA for

the season. It is to replace one of the four batteries in the 48 volt electric propulsion  
battery bank. Even though the batteries are only two years old it looks like one of them
failed and needs to be replaced due to an error in judgment on my part but, caused by
the freight company that did not secure the batteries in shipping. Herein lies the cautionary
tale for others to not make the same mistake I made.  I converted Bianka to Electric
propulsion in 2008. At that time I installed four 8A4D batteries in series to make up the
48 volt propulsion Bank. They did quite well and lasted for eight years. In year eight one
of them showed signs of failure.

Since it is good practice to try and keep all the batteries used in the same bank the same age. I decided to replace all of the batteries instead of the one that was beginning to fail.  The Battery was drop shipped from a warehouse in Florida and took a week to make it up to Long Island. The four batteries were supposed to be delivered to my house.  However I got a call from the shipping company that I needed to come by and pick them up at the warehouse. I thought this was a little strange but I was too excited and wanted to have the batteries installed on board as soon as possible.   So I made no complaint. I drove to the warehouse on a hot summer day to pick up the four batteries. A couple of the warehouse workers were acting a little strange as I asked about my order and they seemed to take their time bringing out the  batteries with the forklift.

There were a few things I noticed that seem strange but I did not question them at the time.
 First was the batteries were not secured to the pallet, the plastic they were wrapped in was
ripped off of them and the cardboard that covered them  was kind of ripped up too. I lifted up
the cardboard from two of the batteries they seemed okay so I accepted the order and and
I had the workers load the batteries into my car.

It was only after I drove to the boatyard to install the batteries on the boat that I discovered
to my horror that two of the batteries were physically damaged. Unfortunately, these were
the two that I didn't look at at the warehouse. Their lugs were bent over like they had been
dropped on them.

The other two batteries looked physically okay.  Here is where I made my error. I called the company where I bought the batteries and told them of the damage to the batteries and I
would need two replacements. I should have rejected the entire shipment because even
though the other two did not look physically damaged one of them was damaged internally
which I discovered while on one of my cruises last year. It’s voltage would start dropping
rapidly when under a heavy current draw compared to the other three batteries in the bank.
Which is why I plan on replacing it this year. But, just to make sure the suspected bad battery is indeed bad. I’ll do a quick check of all the batteries to confirm my suspicions.

WINTERLUDE 2016 PART THREE

After a heavy rain had melted much of the snow left from the recent snow storms. I thought I would make another trip to the boatyard and check up on things again. I got to the boatyard and started chatting with the usual crowd that was hanging out in the warm boatyard office. I continued the gam with another boater outside who was heading to the British Virgin Islands the following week to charter a Catamaran. Something I had done for most of January. After that was finished I noticed how cold it was and thought maybe I should come back on the weekend when it would be noticeably warmer than the lower forty degree Fahrenheit day it was. The breeze did not help make it any warmer. I got in the car to warm up and decide what to do. I then thought well I was already here might as well drag out the folding ladder from back of the car and do a quick check. I'm glad I did. Things had taken a turn for the worse since the previous check I had done the week before. The first and most critical thing I noticed even before I climbed on to the boat. One of the frame struts for the solar bimini was no longer connected to the deck hinge:

 This no doubt happened during the 30 to 50 MPH winds during the recent rains. The winds vibrated the frame enough to loosen the screw that held the end cap to the deck hinge. Luckily the screw fell inside the cockpit and was easily found and the frame secured.

The next thing I noticed is that the piece of Lexan that bridged the gap between the two 75 watt solar panels on the solar bimini was gone:

I mean really gone. I could not find it anywhere The same winds that loosened the bimini hardware no doubt sent this piece of plastic flying. This will have to be replaced later during spring outfitting. I have some new ideas for this area anyway.

The last thing I noticed is that the Hydrofarm 5-Gallon Black Bucket had split open:

No doubt from the water accumulating and freezing in it. The bucket had done a great job of providing solar heated rinse water after swims off of BIANKA. But, apparently was not durable enough as some other buckets that have survived the winters unscathed. A replacement will be ordered and stored down below next winter.

On the bright side the small cube ceramic heater I mentioned in the previous post had decided to start working again and provided some much needed heat as I wrestled with the cold stainless steel tubing of the bimini frame. I was glad I decided to do that quick check of the boat instead of heading back home. Things can change dramatically on board in a week even with the weather warming up.

A POSSIBLE METER FAILURE

The brutal winter may have taken it's toll on one of the meters of my home built Helm instrumentation panel. I noticed also noticed a lot of condensation inside the plastic face of the panel even though I had a weep hole in the bottom of the case. I'll remove the panel and check on the wiring and replace the meter if it does not come back to life.

BLOG UPDATE:

I went back on board a few days later and discovered the meter that I thought had failed during the winter was now working. So it looks like I might be able to take it off the TODO list.

OCTOBER CHANGES: Wind and windage

October is a month of change here in the harbor on the Isle of Long. Boats start disappearing from dock slips and morrings. Sails come off of boats and on some boats the masts also come down. At least they don't fall down but, are laid on deck so the boat can be moved and stored in some inland location. Yep, lot's of changes happening around BIANKA.  The taking down of the mast on a sailboat before it's pulled can change things quite a bit especially if the boat is put back on it's mooring to await hauling out for the winter. I observed this the other day as two nearby boats had a close encounter with the change of tide. One of the boats had it's mast laid on it's deck the day before which changed the amount of windage upon it. This gave the currents flowing underneath the boat more sway in how the boat lay at the mooring. Meanwhile, the boat on the next mooring still had it's mast and was affected more by the wind. The result is when I looked up at one point the end of the mast of the demasted boat was poking into the cockpit enclosure of the fully rigged boat:

Luckily, it appeared to be just high enough to make it over the lifelines and did not appear to be hung up on anything. I kept watching hoping I did not have to make an intervention. Which would have been difficult in the conditions since I only had a dingy with oars and the wind was picking up. In a few minutes the boats had separated:

But, only for a few minutes. Soon the currents and winds resumed their battle and the boats were once again in close proximity to each other. But, not in any danger of getting hung up as before:

Eventually, things got back to normal and the collision danger passed. The next day I woke up from a nap hand found that the boat with the stepped mast had been removed from the mooring eliminating any further chance of the two boats bumping into one another. Just something to consider this time of year when the wind and windage of the boats can change and mysterious damage happens.

ONE YEAR AGO: Superstorm Sandy

It was one year ago that Superstorm Sandy hit this area.

I found BIANKA a thousand feet away from where I left her the night before Sandy came ashore. She was still attached to her mooring. The storm surge had lifted it off the bottom and the boat dragged it across the harbor. Luckily there was no real damage and she did not collide with any other boats. But other boats were not so lucky:

 My Honda BP2 outboard spent four days on the bottom of the harbor:

after the dock the dingy was tied up to broke apart and flipped the dingy:

Other than that I was lucky. The only major damage on board was from a bent up Charlie Noble vent stack:

This happen because I forgot to secure the forward hatch when I left the boat. The hatch was closed but, the 95 MPH winds of Sandy blew it open and smashed the vent.

Other boats suffered much more damage especially ones at the docks:

Others from collisions with other boats as they got dragged through the harbor:

Though compared to some of the other harbors and boatyards in other locations things were not so bad in comparison. In the aftermath of the storm since power and communications were knocked out on land for over two weeks. I moved back on board where things were more normal. Still there were a number of lessons were learned that I put into this post.

ALL IS LOST: THE MOVIE

The  film ALL IS LOST with Robert Redford is causing a lot of talk at the Cannes Film Festival. Looks interesting but, those of us who have spent enough time on the water already know that "stuff happens" on the water  usually at the worst possible time. Here is a trailer from the film.

ANOTHER LESSON FROM SANDY: Securing the dingy

Another lesson I learned after Sandy is when to use and when to secure the dingy outboard.  I was on board the day before Hurricane Sandy hit. Due to the pressure gradient between the departing high pressure and the approach of Sandy the winds piped up to 25 knots with gusts to 35. I was concerned that those winds out of the northeast might make rowing back to the docks northwest of the mooring impossible. Turns out I was able to row the Porta Bote fine in that direction in those conditions without using the engine. But, the big mistake was leaving the outboard on the dingy after I reached the calm conditions inside the marina basin. When I tied up to the dock it was very calm as the the land and bulkhead protected the area from the blowing northeast winds. I thought the dingy would be fine there. I left the motor on because I thought I would need it when I would have to get back on BIANKA at some point before Sandy had totally departed the area.  I tied it on the northwest side of the dock so I also thought the dingy would also be secure even when the winds backed around from the southeast later in the storm   I did not expect the docks to break apart and flip the dingy sending the Honda BF-2 outboard to the bottom.  Below is what it looked like after spending a week on the bottom.

Luckily, I did take my oars with me when I left so I was still able to get back to the boat after the storm. So the lesson learned was to remove the outboard and everything else in the dingy if you are going to leave it at a dock. Though removing it some place secure on land might be the best solution if it can be easily done. I'm in the process of try to revive the drowned outboard which I will post about here in the near future.