We awoke about 6am to the crew from next door stampeding around the deck releasing their lines to get going on their day. We decided 6am was much too early and went back to sleep. We awoke again a couple hours later cooked up some bacon and eggs for breakfast. Owen and I then popped into the dinghy with the 2 potable water containers and all our dive gear and went to a local stream to clean off our dive gear and fill the containers. We did a couple of runs filling the containers and pouring them in Dulcinea’s water tank to top her up.
Once we had finished on our water run we tidied up and dropped the mooring to head back into the sounds. With very little wind it was set to be yet another motor across. Not long into our journey it became apparent that the battery that is attached to the engine/alternator wasn’t keeping up as it should and for some reason was losing a lot of voltage. Bruce and Owen went downstairs into fault finding mode and I stayed up top to steer us, boy I was glad it was a calm clear day the water was almost glassy so I was a happy girl with little chance of sea sickness to get me again!
They guys couldn’t pinpoint the issue so Owen changed the solar panels to be split 50/50 to the house battery and engine battery instead of 90/10 so that kept us going until we got to our next stop. We pulled into Camp Bay and was greeted by seals on the beach and some cell reception.
My phone immediately started going off and as I caught up with voicemails and returned calls while baking some cookies, it became apparent our dog Koda had done a great escape last night and was staying a couple doors down. So with patchy cell reception I sorted out getting him home. Big thanks to Nigel and his family for looking after Koda and not sending him to the pound, and to Roe for picking him up and taking him back home.
We decided to move across the bay to Des’s Bay to chase the last of the sun. Bruce and Owen continued to follow the battery problem, figuring out a couple of other oddities that have been plaguing their minds. The only thing that seems to make any sense is that for some reason the solar panels are drawing the current out, which obviously doesn’t make a lot of sense. (As you can tell I really don’t understand a lot about it and I will let Owen explain in depth if he feels the need)
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon