MORE BATTERY ISSUES: The 12 volt House bank

After installing and testing of the new 8A4D battery for the electric propulsion bank I noticed the 12 volt house bank was experiencing some issues too. What tipped me off was the Morningstar Solar controller was cutting off voltage to it's output lugs. I had wired my Engel refrigerators, AIS, and Fan to this output. The controller cuts the output when the battery voltage drops below 11.4 volts. It looks like one or both of the 8G27 Gel Cell batteries BIANKA uses for the house 12 volts had reached the end of their useful life.   As I opened the compartment that held the batteries I could feel some heat rising from the space.

I took out my infrared temperature probe and took some measurements. One of the batteries measured 141 degrees fahrenheit.

 Way too warm for comfort. The temperature of the second battery had a much better reading of 107 degrees fahrenheit. Much cooler but, still warmer than normal.

Since both of these house batteries are operated in parallel it said to me that the hotter battery was the major problem. As the cooler battery was trying to continually charge the defective warmer battery. I turned the battery switch from "BOTH" to the individual settings and took some voltage readings. The warm battery was around 10.5 volts and the other was over 12 volts. So one battery was truly defective but, I replaced both since ten years providing the house 12 volts was a good run and best practice is to have both batteries the same age when installing them.

After I installed the new 8G27 batteries I used the Centech Battery analyzer  to get a baseline reading of each.

They appear to be pretty closely matched though their cold cranking amps was slightly lower than the  spec but, I am not too concerned. I will recheck them after they have been in operation for a bit. All in all I can not complain about these MK 8G27 Gel batteries.  They were installed when I converted BIANKA to Electric Propulsion in 2008. So ten years was a god run. I hope the new ones last as long.

TESTING AN ELECTRIC PROPULSION BATTERY BANK

It came time to test the batteries of BIANKA’s electric propulsion bank to make sure  
the suspect battery 1 was indeed bad and the others we're still good. To test the
batteries I first needed to empty out the locker so I could squeeze myself down into
the space.

Once that was done I gathered my tools and tester hoping I didn't forget anything
because working down below is a tight space for big guy like me and getting out of it
is much harder than going into it.
So I try to minimize going in and out of the space. The nice thing about down below
since I took out the diesel and put in electric propulsion is my clothes will remain pretty
clean and I won'tsmell of diesel and oil.

I use the Centech Battery Analyzer tester for quick checks on the batteries.
It tests the internal resistance of the battery and also the cold cranking amps
available.  It's not a load tester but can give you a quick look at the condition of
the battery. I'm particularly interested in battery 1 which seemed to have very
limited capacity when I used it last season.
Time to head down below and begin the testing:

As I suspected battery number one had tested numbers were way out of line
compared to the other three batteries in a 48 volt string.

While the voltage reading  on the battery Look good at 13.11 volts.  The internal
resistance of the battery was very high reading 35.8 milliohms.

Compared this to the next battery in the string which had an internal resistance
of 1.95 milliohms.
Also note at the top of the display screen. The one above has only one pixel
and says NG. While the one picture below pixels all the way across and says
good.

This confirmed my suspicion that there was definitely something wrong with
battery 1. Likewise batteries 3 and 4 had similar internal resistance specs to
those of battery 2 with regards to the internal resistance of the batteries.

Moving on to the  cold cranking amp tests  once again showed that battery
one was a indeed defective. The tester showed that there were only 85 cold
cranking amps available.

The  spec for the 8A4D battery is 1100 cold cranking amps. Tests of the
other three batteries showed  they were all over the 1100 spec for cold
cranking amps.

I tabulated the results and  and entered them into BIANKA’s logbook.

Now I also have a data on the three good batteries and can keep an eye
on them as they age. Only thing left to do is order a new 8A4D battery to
replace the defective battery 1.

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.

SPRING CLEANING 2019: Part One

It's still been rather chilly on board to spend too much time working on some of my
major projects. So I thought I do a little spring cleaning in the meantime starting
small at first. The counter across from my  bunk has become a catch-all over the
years and has gotten quite messy.

So I thought I'd start there and work my way around to other parts of the boat cleaning
up and organizing.  I soon realized how far I'd neglected things when I came across
items no longer functional and/or are outdated to be used on the boat .

Such as this Nonsuch Boat registry from 2011.  

An old corroded terminal block an old West Marine Catalog and several Sailing
magazines from the 1990s.

I also came across a  copy of a 1997 NYNEX Yellow Pages Telephone book. Something
that came in handy when I was living on board in New York City on the 1990’s. But, which
is obsolete in the age of Search Engines like Google. I wonder what I will find in other
areas of the boat as I continue to clean and organize things. But at least for now one
area of the boat is much more organized,

Books for Sailors: SIMPLE COURAGE

During this cold raw bitter winter the weather has not been good enough to spend much time on the boat working on projects. But it is a good time to curl up with a good book especially one regarding aspects of the sea.  I recently finished a riveting book about an incident that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean back in the early 1950s. In December 1951 A cargo ship built in World War II called the Flying Enterprise was heading toward New York when it encountered a severe storm which cracked it’s hull and put the ship in a severe  list. It was not only carrying its crew but also a number passengers including children. The book is an excellent detailed account of what happened before during and after the ship sailed into harm's way. The book describes the harrowing rescue of the passengers and crew and the raw determination of the captain who stayed with the ship until the end. The book is called SIMPLE COURAGE: The True Story of Peril on the Sea and is a very good read or listen to If you like audible books  which is read by the author Frank Delaney.

A LATE WINTER CHECKUP

It has not been a snowy winter but it has been a cold one.  Which is why I've not been down to the boatyard to check on BIANKA in over a month. I was away for most of January. February has been a cold  and raw month. So when a sunny day came where the temperature approached 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It was time to make a visit to the boatyard to check on the boat. Many of the boats are still nestled under their shrink wrap covers. From the cockpit they looked like snow drifts.

 I didn't stay long just long enough to charge the batteries via the Dual Pro 4 charger which only took about an hour since the batteries were pretty much being kept topped up by the solar panels over the winter.

While the charger was going through its  charge cycle I drained the small amount of water that had accumulated in the bilge  since the last time I visited over a month ago. After that was done I splashed a little bit of the leftover antifreeze into the bilge to prevent any further water from freezing hopefully for the last time.

I picked up the homemade boarding  ladder extension which I had stored in the cabin for the winter.  A few years ago another boat had smashed into it and broken the strut that help keep it straight.  It was still usable for boarding but tended to slide underneath the boat when climbing up it. I'm taking it back to the house to to replace the damaged strut for the upcoming season.

I also spent a little time sitting in the cockpit staring out at the empty Harbor.

How different it looks without any moorings or boats on it’s waters. In another month or two the moorings will start appearing like returning birds after a long winter. A sign that the sailing season is about to begin.

NEW YEAR NEW IDEAS

It's been over ten years since I first converted BIANKA from diesel auxiliary power to electric propulsion.  Still have never regretted the decision and as I read the messages in the various Internet sailing sites about engine troubles people are having. It reinforces in my mind have grateful I am to have avoided so much of those issues.  Though I have done a few changes over the years including a new battery bank. I've also changed to a new controller this past year that has had the added advantage of improving the regen charging capabilities of my system. One that I plan to explore in greater depth in the coming year. I am also thinking about adding some more EP power as I have the ability to tap into a little more power of the Honda 2000i generator. All that and some install projects like a new VHF radio install and the long delayed conversion of the old diesel fuel tank is among other things to do. So it looks like it will busy year coming up. But, first it is time to do some traveling to the Indian Ocean for some sailing and relaxing in the Maldives.

GIFT FOR SAILORS: TIDES: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean

Holiday gift giving time is just around the corner and if you are looking for a gift to give to a sailor   I have a great suggestion.
A book called TIDES: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and learning about tides all over the world and what makes the depth and current values different in various locations. It is a fascinating and informative read that I'm sure anyone who sails or just enjoys the sea will enjoy reading.

 In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture—the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.

A FRIEND SAYS GOODBYE FOR THE SEASON

I had just finished storing the Porta Bote dinghy in the shed for the winter when I spied a Great Blue Heron land in one of the trees. I had often seen Great Blue Herons while I was relaxing  on BIANKA at the mooring. The Great Blue Heron is a shorebird I had never seen one this far inland. So it was surprised to see it land in one of my backyard trees. I like to think it came to say goodbye for the season before it headed south.  Anyway it was still a nice way to end the season seeing it.

SAILING SEASON 2018: A quick look back

Now that's sailing season has ended here on Long Island and I am about to pull the
boat for the season. I thought I'd post a little report of how the 2018 season went.
Several small cruises to a nearby harbor provided enough sailing satisfaction to satiate
my wants and needs.

The new Thoosa controller I installed last year worked flawlessly and was an
improvement on the old Navitas controller that mysteriously died over a recent winter.
Not only where there are no problems with it. The good news is it appears that I start
getting Regen charging at 4 knots as opposed to the 6 knots with the old controller.
That was a pleasant surprise.

On another matter I discovered that one of the brand new batteries I installed in 2016 seems to be failing. Pretty sure this was damaged in shipment. However I was able to make due for the season by careful monitoring of it’s voltage and going into hybrid mode using the Honda 2000 generator and Zivan NG-1 battery charger as needed. I plan to do a load test on the batteries over the winter or next spring to verify it is indeed bad. I suspect I'll need to buy a new battery but I'm not going to buy four new ones as the others seem to be OK.

The boats 48 volt Marine Air-X wind turbine controller board seems to have failed.
I’ll probably send it back for refurbishing in the spring considering it’s been trouble free
for about eight years. Meantime BIANKA’s 48 volt solar panels and occasional Honda
generator charging took up the slack.  

All the projects I had planned to work on over the summer did not get done as usual
despite my good intentions. These included:

A new VHF radio install with a remote microphone.

Replacing the non-working macerator pump.

Finishing the conversion of the diesel tank into a freshwater washdown tank.

Install additional LED lighting

Hopefully over the winter and spring  I'll have better success completing some of these items.

I did have good success sewing the bronze sail slides onto a sail and somebody gave to me over
15 years ago. It was in very good shape.  It has replaced the sail that came with
BIANKA when I bought her and was probably original back to 1986. So it looks like I will
not have to buy a new sail for a few years. Though I am planning on making a new
Stack Pack sail cover for it over the winter.

The new Porta Bote Dingy works well even when towed behind BIANKA.  Though its

built-in transom now makes it 12 pounds heavier and I can no longer easily carry it under
one arm like the  previous one I owned.

All in all a good season of sailing and looking forward to an even better one next year.