Wind and Water

We had expected to be on our way this morning but alas it will be tomorrow.
We had planned to also be going down the outside but that has been literally blown away. We have been blessed with fantastic weather for the last 2 months so it is time to see some of the other side. The 30-40kts forecast and 12-15' seas outside are not what we were looking for so we are going to explore the inside route for the next 2 weeks.
To top it all off, the water main at the marina broke yesterday and that has postponed the laundry and the boat cleanup although we did have some water from Shearwater in one tank (an interesting tan colour) that was put aside for emergency purposes. We have been using good water from Hartley Bay and "Wheezy" the watermaker for the last week or so. We had been a bit tight on water after thinking that we could pick up water in Klemtu when we left in the morning only to find that the treated water supply was available ONLY when filling up with fuel.

Pamela Bendall, who we first met several years ago at the Vic Maui race (and who has done almost every job connected with the race) lives in Hardy and has been a fantastic help to us setting appointments, lending a car, and generally helping us solve problems.

One of the biggest and longest running problem has been the rather indifferent charging we have been getting from the alternator. At times the 150amp alternator and smart regulator system has worked fairly well although there has always been a strange pulsing and the occasional shutdown of the charging when the house batteries were clearly not fully charged -- even to the point of not having enough power to maintain the computer. The system seemed to work only when the engine was run at very low speed.
After a particularly frustrating day where we had to start the engine several times while we were sailing to maintain enough power to have our navigation systems working, I got out the data sheets for the regulator and reviewed the instillation and wiring with Dan and Marek. The book made a big deal about sensing battery voltage after the isolator as there is a voltage drop across it and the batteries would be under charged if we sensed voltage at the alternator output. I totally understood that and had setup the system accordingly. What I missed was that the alternator has to sense "house" battery voltage not starting battery voltage. We found what was happening was that the start battery was doing very well at 13+ volts while the house batteries were almost dead. When I had originally installed the system I followed the directions carefully and wired things as if there were only 1 general purpose battery.
We now have new wiring and the necessary relays so that the charging system "sees" the battery we are currently switched to and provides the necessary power to charge that battery. If the switch is set to all then all the batteries will be brought up to full charge.
I am very interested to see how this works out. The test at the dock looked good.

We don't have many pictures from the trip down --- Dan took off to his B&B and a round of golf and Marek had airplane to catch so I wasn't able to download their photos. I know they have some good ones and hopefully I can add them later.

Today is laundry, repair the fuel gauge sensor, final provisioning and getting ready for an early departure tomorrow morning -- we also have to do something about a haircut for Abby -- she is starting to look like a Hebridian cow -- we haven't seen her eyes for about 2 weeks now.

Cheers from Turicum