Monthly Archives: Sunday November 6th, 2011

Lego construction site and dead batteries

Posted on Sunday November 6th, 2011 by dafdaf

I’ve got 56 minutes left, then my laptop will shut down. And I cannot recharge it, because the ship’s batteries are DEAD. Dead ? You say.  – Well, yes – it seems so. Today I disconnected every single of our 6 months old AGM batteries and measured the voltage. It was between 12.8 and 12.7 Volt. That’s not much but it doesn’t mean they’re dead yet. The thing is: If we charge them, the voltage goes up and down as if there’s no battery connected: If the sun shines, we’ve got 13.5 volts, if there are clouds, we’ve got 12.6. If I try to connect something power-hungry the voltage goes down from 12.6 or whatever it is to 10.5 volts in a few seconds. This doesn’t look too good.

What I cannot understand: How can those 4x 100Ah AGM batteries that are just six months old already be dead ? We were connected to shore-power many times and the batteries have never been ‘used’ much. – Our battery monitor NEVER showed a charge less than 60% – and this maybe one or two times. I really don’t get it. If any reader of this blog has an idea how I could check the batteries or do anything about this situation – all input is very welcome !!

Posted in Hardware, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Work | 5 Comments

Beach instead of busy

Posted on Friday November 4th, 2011 by dafdaf

Today at breakfast we decided to stay for a few more days. Senegal would have been really nice – but I don’t and we actually can’t leave in a hurry. Even IF we would have made it in time, we still just would’ve seen Gui’s friends for one or maybe two days. But probably not at all… It’s better to use the last european city to stock up, repair what’s broken and get fit for ‘the crossing’. And we still will go to Cabo Verde but only in a few days.

Posted in LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

At Gran Canaria

Posted on Friday November 4th, 2011 by dafdaf

Yesterday we said goodbye to my parents. And as this was the last time my parents will come to visit us for quite a long time, we were all a bit depressive. The best to do in such a situation ? Change of location.

We started the engine in the last sunlight and crossed over to Gran Canaria during the night. There was no wind and we were running under engine for the whole trip. But that’s ok since we wanted to meet friends in Las Palmas and the wind usually blows from NE which would make that trip rather unpleasent anyway. The night was quite chilly and for the first time in about a month I had to use a fleece vest. We arrived at about 10 in the morning on the 2nd November and woke up our friends from the Kira.

We had a wonderful day (and night) together with Tim, Klaus and their guest Andreas. But next day we already had to say goodbye again as they are off towards the west coast to meet other friends. We’ll probably see each other again in the beginning of December on some island of Cabo Verde.

Our day was quite busy going shopping in the supermarket, getting supplies and parts for the ship, doing our laundry, etc. But now we’re pretty much set to leave Europe. We hope we can start tomorrow in the early afternoon after filling up our tanks with water and diesel, going to the post office, drug store and a few other errants. We’ll see. I for myself would rather stay another day or two and get everything really finished – but friends of Gui are waiting for us in Dakar. And they’ll leave on the 12th ! That doesn’t give us much time…

Anyway. The place here is actually quite nice. We’re at anchor beside the big marina where all the spaces are booked for the ARC ships. The anchorage is crowded with friendly neighbours and we’ve met many ships that we’ve seen somewhere else in the past weeks and months. There are plenty of good shops to get last minute parts for the ship and in general I think it’s a good place to start across to the Carribean or wherever.

And sorry that there wasn’t a arrival-message. Somehow the Spot-location wouldn’t get through – but I’ve placed a nice little anchor on the map just now.

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Cool beer again !!

Posted on Tuesday November 1st, 2011 by dafdaf

Today the kids left their home and stayed with the grandparents in the hotel. They’ll spend the afternoon at the pool, eat together and watch The Simpsons on TV.  – And the parents of those wonderful children spend the afternoon…. installing a new fridge !!!

Heh. Well we could have used the time in a better way. But this really was an important item on our todo list. The ancient ‘Combicool’ wouldn’t run on 12V anymore so we were running it via our inverter. That increased the power input again – and the fact that it was running 24hrs/day and the beer still wouldn’t get cold was just enough to get me started. The old unit was quickly deinstalled but getting the new cooler unit inside the fridge took me nearly 3 hours. I could only get in there with my head and one arm but had to drill holes, cut screw threads, mount the evaporator, etc…

But not too much later everything was connected and the new fridge was surring and cooling our precious liquids and refreshments. This will also cut down our power consumption by more than 50% since the fridge was actually using most of the power.

Oh – and I nearly forgot: No, we’re not in La Gomera. After a quick check of the rigging, we WERE sailing out of San Miguel but unfortunately part of the crew was not really feeling well and so we put into the next harbour that was the Marina del Sur. The good thing about that: This place is way nicer than the marina San Miguel and we’ve finally met the SY Nubia !

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