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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
What a wild couple of weeks! And we're still in Seattle!
First off, we had the engine checked. It was difficult to start and ran rough, blowing smoke until it warmed up. I didn't feel confident that it would remain trouble-free for the time we'll be in the wilderness. As it turned out, the injectors were fouled and required rebuilding. This of course took several days by the time it was all done.
A possible culprit of the fouling was some critters growing in the fuel, so we got some biocide to kill them off. But that would leave their bodies in the fuel to mess things up. We have a "Baja Bypass" system on the boat - it's an external pump and a few valves to enable the diesel to be pumped from the tank, through the filters and back to the tank again. Several filters and a lot of hours later, the tanks were clean. Well, at least they were clean enough that we weren't too worried that all those little bodies would clog the filters and strangle the engine at an inappropriate moment.
So now we could leave... which we did on April 22. This departure was just across Puget Sound to Port Madison for a couple of days at anchor. We had a few systems that needed checking out since we hadn't been out at anchor for nearly half a year.
One of the systems was a new dinghy, a Porta-Bote® folding boat. The old inflatable dinghy, as a practical matter, could only be carried on the foredeck which obscured the view from the pilothouse. This was not a problem in the tropics when we spent most of our watchkeeping in the cockpit, but wouldn't do in the expected conditions along the Inland Passage to Alaska. The new dinghy folds to about 4" (about 6.5 cm.) high, perfect for storage on the foredeck without interfering with conning Volant. "Checking out the system" including figuring out how to launch and retrieve her, how to install and retrieve the outboard, and how to install and sail her with the optional sail kit we purchased. All this we did, and have figured out what additional equipment to acquire and install to make all these procedures go more easily. The "sea trials" for the new Rampant went quite well, and overall I'm very pleased with the new acquisition.
This winter, while in the boatyard, we made a decision to rely exclusively on the DC refrigeration system for the duration of this upcoming cruise with its expected high percentage of motoring verses sailing. We were at anchor for two days, and then rafted up at a gathering of the Puget Sound Cruising Club in Liberty Bay near Poulsbo. During that time the "house" bank of 2 4D batteries (200 amp-hour capability each) did not have enough to power the refrigeration. The system would run for less than an hour before the "house" bank voltage levels fell too low to continue.
One of the boats in the raft-up had a clamp-on DC ammeter. We used it to determine that the alternator was doing its job, but either the regulator wasn't telling the alternator how much amperage to crank out or the batteries weren't accepting the charge.
So it was back to Shilshole Marina to plug into shore power to keep the refrigerator running until we could resolve that difficulty.
A phone call to Ample Power, manufacturers of our Smart® regulator, were very helpful in further isolating the problem. They confirmed that the regulator was working as designed, which meant that the "house" batteries were the culprits.
Since it's advisable to have all onboard batteries be of the same type and the same age, and since the starter battery was also beginning to be questionable, we replaced all 4 onboard batteries. At the same time we upgraded from gel-cell to AGMs (Absorbed Glass Matt). These are dual-purpose, providing both the cranking power required to start the engine and power the windlass and bow thruster, and the deep discharge cycling for days at anchor.
Replacing the batteries was no easy task. The 3 4D batteries weigh in at about 140 lbs. (80 kg.) each, and the Group 27 starter is no lightweight either. Fortunately we had devised a launching system for Rampant, which included a 6:1 handy-billy (a portable block-and-tackle affair). Two of the big 4D batteries are installed directly under the cockpit sole, which has a removable deck plate. By removing the plate and using the handy-billy hung from the boom, we could raise each of the old batteries, then swing them over to the dock and down into a dock cart. Installing the new batteries required only reversing that procedure. The forward battery happened to be installed just below the forward deck hatch, so we could use the whisker pole as a boom for lifting, swinging and lowering. Because the forward hatch was smaller than the cockpit deck plate, the battery had to be maneuvered through on its end, something not safely possible with a standard flooded lead-acid unit.
Once installed we had a new problem: namely, how to monitor the batteries adequately to insure their continued good health. We went again to the Ample Power folks for their Energy Monitor II®. It monitors the "house" bank extremely well, the "starter" bank sufficiently, but has no facility for monitoring a third bank - their recommendation is that boats should have only two banks. For now, we've elected to rely only on the boat's voltmeter to keep track of the windlass/thruster battery.
Installing the Energy Monitor was straight forward, but not easy. Installing the shunts, fuses, signal and power wiring took me well into the night. But at the end it was done, and working as advertised.
Ample Power also provided us with a very useful primmer on battery maintenance. That, combined with the manual for the Energy Monitor, has given us some good and practical advice for taking care of our newly acquired gear.
Now there was some cleanup to do. The cockpit deck plate was difficult to remove, and some paint came off in the process. We didn't want to reinstall the plate properly until the bare metal is covered with good paint. The Energy Monitor needs a plate for mounting. And there were some places on the deck and in the cockpit where we had started a project of repainting where some rust was beginning to show. All of this was done.
Throughout this time folks have been very helpful, their comradery warm and generous. Somehow, whenever we need a car to run an errand someone showed up and offered us the use of theirs. And when we were frustrated and at the end of our rope, good advice was forthcoming that got us over the hump.
So now we can depart, after finishing up some last minute chores. We'll see...
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