Tarwathie's Soul

Green Cove Springs, FL

One of our most beloved possessions on board is our ship's clock.  The sounding of the ship's bells every thirty minutes, and the ritual of winding the clock every few days are sources of delight and "being at home" feelings of wellness.  When at sea, Libby and I actually change the watch at eight bells.

We have struggled to keep the clock running over the years.  It is getting more and more difficult.  Also, all the exterior shine and lacquer are worn.

I recently learned that we can have Chelsea Clocks restore the clock to new condition.  I'm sending it away today to get that done.  They won't tell you in advance how much it costs.  Time will tell.  No matter what they say, it would be hard to say no.

Tarwathie will feel incomplete while the clock is away.

Gremlins

Green Cove Springs, FL

The other day, Libby and I watched the movie Gremlins on board.  Perhaps we shouldn't have done that because the following day, we were besieged with electrical gremlins.  I'll explain.

1. When we returned to Tarwathie, the batteries seemed to be in fine condition.  But when I checked the water levels, I could see the plates exposed.  It took 3 liters of water to. top them off.  After that, the batteries performed poorly.  The voltage dropped to 11.8 volts in the morning, but when 5 amps charging current was applied, they charged to 14.2 volts in only 30 minutes.  That is a sign of bad batteries.
   
   I fear that leaving the boat for 5 months with the solar panel controller set to run an equalize cycle every 30 days, used too much battery water.  My bad.
   
2. To verify, I hooked up the shore power.  But that did nothing.  "Oh yes," I had forgotten that our shore power charger failed just before arrival in Green Cove Springs last spring.  I am very unhappy with that charger.  I bought it for $400 reconditioned.  It had three banks.  Every two years, the bank in use failed.  This year the last bank failed.
   
3. I ordered a new charger.  It is a small simple Genius Charger, that cost only $59 new. (More on that in a future blog.).  The picture above shows the old charger next to the new one.
   
   
4. The day after watching the movie, I set out to remove the old charger and install the new one.   Of course things are never as simple as they seem.  The lengths and the types of connectors for the new charger were totally different.  I couldn't just swap chargers.  I had to rewire.
5. So I did install the new charger and I did rewire.  When I first turned it on, the LED lit, but I got no charging current according to our Link 10 battery monitor.  What the heck?  It seemed unlikely that the brand new charger was defective.
6. I hooked up a manual automobile battery charger that was laying around.  No charging current?   What the heck?
7. I started the engine.  Plenty of charging current showed.  What the heck?
8. I disconnected the automobile  charger and put the Genius charger back.  This time not even the LED light turned on.  What the heck?  Things seemed to be going downhill.  As I stood there scratching my head, I overheard a snatch of someone else's conversation.  He said, "Do you have power?"  "Aha," I thought, the whole pier is blacked out, "I hope I was not the cause."   Next I got in the car to go to the grocery store.  I was shocked to see that all of Green Cove Springs and the whole region up to 7 miles north of us was blacked out.  "Thank goodness," I thought, "I didn't cause all of that."
9. I reasoned that I must have made a wiring error. So I shut everything up and resolved to revisit it in the morning.
10. During the night, I abruptly sat up in bed with the answer.  I had connected the new charger directly to the batteries, but that bypasses the shunt that the Link 10 uses to sense current.  The next morning, I woke and rewired once again.  Everything works now.

Whew.  Darn gremlins.

The Vasa Test

Green Cove Springs, FL

I was shocked to read the news this morning.  It said that the recent incident where a whale watching boat, Leviathan II, sunk near Vancouver Island, BC was caused by a wave coming when the 25 passengers were all on the port side.  What!  WTF! I thought, "Have we not learned the lesson of the Vasa Test after 400 years?"   I'll explain.

In Stockholm, Sweden on 10 August 1628, the new ship Vasa was subjected to the normal stability test before casting off for her maiden voyage.  They ordered the crew to run back and forth, port to starboard.  Well, the Vasa flunked the test.  She nearly capsized, and the test was hastily cancelled.  She then cast off, and a few minutes later, the first gust of wind caused her to capsize and sink. (She was salvaged in 1961, and you can see her in the Vasa Museum today.)

I'm sure that any experienced boater would question the story of Leviathan II,   We have all seen motor vessels that size, and it sounds unbelievable that 25 passengers on the port side could make her unstable.  The Leviathan II was licences for 46 people, but many similar sized day cruise boats carry hundreds of people,  By definition, no captain could act fast enough to prevent all passengers from rushing to one side.

It must be that the Leviathan II would not pass the Vasa test.  How can it be that such a thing could be allowed to happen in this modern world?  Aren't all of today's licensed vessels required to pass a modernized Vasa test?  I am shocked.

Warning, This Will Melt Your Heart

Green Cove Springs, FL

Our great grandaughter Anna, just barely 1 year old, is a delight. Watch this video and decide for yourself.

Kudos to videographer Dave, and to the proud parents Harley and Sara.

OMG, Poor Women Bloggers

Green Cove Springs, FL

I read a very interesting article today.  It was about a woman violinist who writes a blog (like me).  She has published her blog for about 10 years (like me).   Unlike me, she collected more than 1000 obscene comments from her blog.

Then the OMG moment happened.  If our blog was written by Libby instead of me, then she would have collected a similar list of obscene comments.   I never considered that.

In Marathon, I teach seminars on writing blogs.  It never occured to me to mention this sexist aspect of the Internet.  I will mention it in the future, and suggest that women blog authors who might get really upset by inappropriate comments, might have to disguise their identity as a man for defensive reasons.  That's sad.