Use It Or Loose It

“Ships were not built for the harbour ...” or so a poem begins. The same applies for boats and 10 weeks in Perth, plus a couple of incidental ones on either side getting prepared to leave, amounts to 3 months of inattention. There is nothing sadder than a neglected boat.

Putting Zofia to "bed"

We were glad of our preparations ahead of departure as it set us up for the least possible surprises when we returned. Everything was freshly laundered and bedding stored in vac bags. All surfaces were wiped down with a water and clove oil solution to minimize the possibility of any ‘food’ for mould and mildew to feast on. The fridge was emptied, defrosted, turned off and cleaned. Only the little Engles freezer was left running containing a few basics we could return to (some bread, butter, cheeses and sliced meats). Various below-water through-hull ball valves were closed off - in particular the toilet ‘intake’ hoses. The heads (toilets) were thoroughly flushed with fresh water and vinegar to ensure there would not be any calcification going on in the the ‘out’ hoses. Also to minimize the possibility of ‘smells’. Micro marine organisms and even teeny tiny shrimps and such leave a terrible pong when they die off in an unattended loo. For good measure, I also cling wrapped the bowls so that remaining water didn’t evaporate.


All lockers that hold our provisions were wiped and vacuumed ensuring that all that remained was tinned, tubbed or in Tupperware. If any critters existed or arrived they’d be doomed to a death from starvation! We also set up a dehumidifier on the galley bench with it’s hose draining into a sink and programmed it to run for 1 hour twice daily. My war on mould and mildew was ON! All these internal preparations meant that when we extended our absence from 1 month to more than 2, we would not face chaos and mould-ageddon below decks.

Being allocated a pen next to 'Santa’s Boat' which left minimal space between our vessels, we immediately marched to the chandlery to buy 2 extra fenders plus a couple of new mooring lines. We hoped to avoid any accidental nudges with 44 tonnes of steel.

Zofia squeezed up next to the 'Santa Claus Boat'

When we returned from Perth, the decks and canvas were clean from 3 months of rainfall power-washes which was a miracle. Internally all was clean and sweet smelling. What was not immediately evident was all the things that had seized up or clogged up. Use it or loose it as they say!

  

The transducer or log paddle wheel was an obvious candidate for being clogged up. And it was. It was possibly the worst we'd ever seen it. We actually can't recall ever having it so badly choked up. This time there were even small barnacles that needed to be loosened with a knife. A 15 minute job was a 45 minute one. Yuk.

 

Most zippers needed to be eased open with some encouragement from some WD-40 or Innox.

 

The Bloke thought he'd tested and tried out  e v e r y t h i n g  ahead of our departure from the marina. Just as we were prepared to leave early in the morning before the breeze was forecast to pick up,  we discovered the bow thruster was inoperative. We hardly dared slide out into the marina canal without the very bit of kit that is designed for this operation. Getting to the bow thruster motor is a horrid job as it's under the bunk in the fore cabin and that is the cabin we affectionately call our forward lazerette. 3 plastic storage tubs plus the spinnaker, mattresses, bedding etc were dragged out and replaced not once but twice! I recalled a similar incident in Port Stephens 3 years ago which was caused by a connection coming loose. The battery connections were not loose this time but despite having been coated convincingly with lanolin, knocking them about a bit and breaking whatever corrosion or interference to connectivity that existed, seemed to do the trick. Phew. The prospect of yet another week in the marina was crushing. Zofia had been tied up in there for 3 months - the longest ever time!

  

 Contents of the forward cabin now in the Salon

The barometer was looking a bit sad and needed a polish up too.

As rusty was we were feeling about our own boat handling skills, we did manage to slip out of our pen without drama and in the end without the assistance of the bow thruster.  The next thing for us to discover to be jammed were the thumb screws that hold the outboard motor onto it's stand.  This was once we'd anchored off Stradbroke Island and wanted to get ashore. Yet more grumbling from The Bloke ....."Well you use it or you loose it!" and there's no arguing the point; it's true!

Outsmarting the Dolphin Smart Battery Charger

Servicing a bit of high tech electronic kit is not really a ‘thing’. Their integrated circuits and capacitors work or they don’t but faced with forking out a ‘boat unit’ for a replacement, the affectionate boat owner’s term for $1,000; well, you’ll give it a go won’t you?

So what’s it all about?

Zofia came equipped with a Dolphin  brand ‘smart battery charger’. This item basically controls the delivery of power to our battery storage bank. Our various batteries are essential and are a level of complexity beyond a car battery. We have an isolated battery to start the motor. Another that operates the power guzzling bow thruster and anchor winch. Both are self explanatory and although the engine starter battery is pretty critical we could manage without the powered anchor winch (with difficulty) and the bow thruster which is really only used for extra maneuverability in tight places like marinas. The house batteries are a whole other world and responsible for ongoing power delivery to the fridge, freezer, lights (navigational and domestic), VHF radio, navigation equipment, AIS, radar, auto-helm and other instruments, pumps, entertainment systems and such. We are merely 21st century sailors and only as good as our electrical system and electronics allow us to be.

The thing about storage batteries and smart chargers is this; different types of batteries require different charging regimes based on their chemical composition and ability to accept and store power. Our batteries are AGM’s and just slightly different to wet cell lead acid car batteries. In practical terms, a specific voltage needs to be delivered for a particular length of time to enable the batteries to accept and store the charge. Why is our charger ‘smart’? It’s because it has multiple settings allowing for a choice of a variety of conventional battery types plus sensors and timers to monitor progress and adjust delivered volts. When it’s done it’s job, the battery status will be at ‘float’ - and hooray for that because it’s what allows us to float too.

So, let’s roll back to Noumea, mid 2017 and a visit to the Port Moselle Marina. A pair of idiots in pursuit of an endless summer surfing surfari docked on our marina finger. They proceeded to dismantle the power bollard because they didn’t have an appropriate power plug. In case you are wondering, it's a european one. In doing so, they blew the power to the entire marina finger. Sadly this was just minutes from us disconnecting ahead of departure and we didn’t even realise we had a big problem until a couple of days after. We were leaving already fully recharged and believed it to be a shore power issue. A few days later we discovered that our ‘smart charger’ had saved our entire boat electronics when it’s sacrificial fuses were blown by the ‘event’ at the marina.

  

Clever, clever charger!

Luckily, the Bloke was able to clean the carbon charring and replace the mini spade fuses. It was terribly annoying at the time as it required a return trip to Noumea. We thought we’d dodged a bullet but not indefinitely. It was evident that there was some damage to the fuse area when the fuses continued from time to time, to blow/melt. There was no clear pattern to it but we sort of understood that we were living on borrowed time and buying and re-buying replacement fuses would only take us so far before an inevitable and dreaded replacement. This is called 'Doing an Egyptian' and living in de-Nile.

 

2 pairs in under 30 mins is too much! 

 

On the bright side, should we replace our smart charger with a New Generation one, it will have a cycle for lithium batteries and could be a more powerful one too. Ours only has a 40amp capacity. We could replace it with a 60amp one which would enable faster charging. A win. If we ever decided to change over to lithium batteries, the charger would be one of the several control systems that would require upgrading. Yay, we’d be Lithium Ready! Double win.

A ‘boat unit’ however, is not easily parted with. When the fuse replacement regime was looking to no longer be viable, the smart charger needed a more serious looking at. Replacing the fuses twice in 20 minutes? Absolutely not viable! It was time to dismantle our bunk, remove panels, not merely lift them, and remove the charger to inspect the back of the board. Time to bite the bullet. The electrical tool box was already out, why not the “F” box as well?!

 

Amazingly, the Bloke was as calm as could be. He called for labels to be printed and photos to be taken to simplify exact restoration after everything had been taken to bits. Dismounting and dismantling the charger was revelatory. No wonder the bloomin’ thing was fusing all the time! What little brushes and such did we have to remove this gunk he asked? Plenty as it turned out and the best yet was the ‘Air Duster’ or can of compressed air.

 

Organisation required to conquer chaos

The before and after photos are the basis for great optimism. Fingers are crossed that we get to keep our ‘boat unit’ a while longer and the ‘F’ Box can stay holstered. We might have just outsmarted the ‘Smart Charger’. Now that’s truly winning!

Nothing like a blast of fresh air to clear things up

More Power To Us

Our 5 month trip to New Caledonia and Vanuatu highlighted that it would be a good thing to upgrade our power generation capacity. Existing capacity of a maximum of 9 amps during a sunny day committed us to running our generator for longer and more frequently than we wanted. Our solar panels would only keep up with refrigeration in daylight hours. Throw in navigation equipment or even lights and entertainment and the battery bank figures rapidly headed south. In anticipation of a solar power upgrade in the offing, the Bloke started ordering parts as soon as we'd arrived in Bundaberg from Vanuatu. The kids in Brisbane knew for sure we not long away from visiting them once parts for the project began arriving.

 

The new controller

A new 40amp controller from the 12Volt Shop was conveniently the 'Big Brother' of our existing controller and was selected because it had the same footprint as our existing one. It could also feed to our Orora digital display. That would circumvent a lot of messing about. The Bloke chose conventional rigid panels (2 x 200W) ones over flexible ones and knowing that the old ones would be impossible to remove from the Signex panel on top of our targa, he decided to simply mount the new ones over the top of the old.

Targa with signex panel

Doing all the work whist still in a marina was beneficial due to access to a chandlery for all the fixing bolts, lengths of wire and incidentals. What had the Bloke stumped though was how exactly he'd be able to lift the panels into place and do the fixing. We were secured in our pen bow first and his work area was above the transom and over water! He couldn't see a solution at first but once I'd suggested undoing the back section of the bimini, a brilliant slot opened up.

Clear air and space to work

The panels have been in operation for well over 1 month now and we declare them as a win. We are going longer between big charge days having more than doubled capacity from 9 to about 25 amps. While we aren’t getting 25 amp often (blame the rainy weather) we seem to manage 9 amps even when it’s overcast. Definitely winning!