Batteries, and Battery Types

New Bern, NC
35 06.670 N 077 02.371 W

Sigh, it's time to buy new batteries again.  It seems like every other week, (but of course, that's not true).  One of my two batteries has two bad cells.  The other is about the same age as the first.

I have a single bank of two group 31 batteries, no starting battery.  Also no room for four batteries.

I'm wondering what replacements to buy.

Gel Cells --  Early on Tarwathie, I bought gel cells.  They were a disaster, failing almost immediatly after installation.  I went through 4 sets in 18 months.  Unfortunately, for West Marine, they replaced them four times under warranty.  I sold them to another cruiser, and he replaced them within a week free at West Marine after I provided him with my receipt.   I finally figured out that my engine compartment runs far too hot (about 140 F in summer) for gel cells.  My conscience felt bad about that, because the whole thing was my fault, not West Marine's.

AGM -- These batteries cost the most, and many people assume that they are the Cadillac of batteries simply because of their high price.   Actually, the primary advantage of AGM is that they can accept charge more rapidly.  But to take advantage of that I would have to double the capacity of our alternator, double the capacity of the shore power charger, install double pulleys on the engine for the alternator belts, and buy an electronic charge controller, and install engine room ventilators;  a lot of stuff.   The reality is that when we run the engine on the ICW, we run it 10 or more hours per day.  When not on the ICW, we use solar panels for recharging, not the engine.   AGMs for Tarwathie would costs a big pile of money for little advantage.  Also, I can quickly think of three or more cruising friends, who had horrible experiences with AGM batteries.

Flooded Cells -- Conventional batteries are best for Tarwathie.  But recently I went to a battery seminar sponsored by Trojan Battery Company.  They made good arguments, as to why their premium brand was better.

Today, I went to the local battery store to shop.  First, I found that Trojan group 31 batteries cost $240 each, compared to $120 for regular brands.  Double!   The warranty on Trojans is the same one year as on the others.  Trojan claims that you might get 60% more life with their batteries compared to brand X, but they won't warrant it.  Sounds like double the cost is hard to justify.

Then, I learned something new.  The dealer was selling dual-purpose batteries.   They are halfway between starting batteries and deep-discharge batteries.  I never heard of that before.   I run a single bank for both cranking and house loads. I used to have a separate starting battery, but I junked it after nearly 5 years of almost never using it, because it was so inconvenient using the battery switch to select the starting battery to start.

I'm skeptical of dual-purpose batteries.  What do my readers have to say?   What do they say about me using my single bank for both cranking and house power?   Normally, my engine starts with less less than 1 second cranking.

Review

Neuse River, near Minnesott Beach, NC

34 57.871 N 076 43.506 W

 

So, we will be in New Bern this afternoon. We'll stay there for nearly a month. So let's say thst this phase of our migration is done. So how did it go?

 

We left Marathon (reluctantly) nearly three weeks ago. Since then:

1. We did an overnight passage on the outside to Fort Myers
2. We stopped two days in Labelle, where we are ourselves silly at The Log Cabin BBQ.
3. We spent a night in a Clewiston, our first time there. Conclusion: not much of interest there.
4. We had a nice sail across Lake Okeechobee, and got stuck in a barge traffic tie up at the St Lucie Lock.
5. We spent nearly a week in Vero.
6. We traveled up the ICW to Jacksonville.
7. We did a two night outside passage to Winyah Bay and The Wacamaw River.
8. We ducked weather for three nights, and had fun with our friends Bo and Joyce, in Myrtle Beach.
9. We travelled up the ICW to CBSP (see the neat sunset picture from there).
10. We did an overnight outside passage from Masonboro Inlet to Beaufort Inlet.
11. Now we are here on The Neuse River.

 

So, when we do start moving, the events list piles up quickly. Note that one of the three weeks was spent on a mooring in Vero. If we had stayed in Mrathon those three weeks, the time would have flown past, and hardly anything noteworthy would have happened.

 

So, how fast or slow is it to migrate from The Keys to New England? Our typical time is two months, but that is because we make numerous prolonged stops. If we pushed along every day, it would take a month. In theory, if we got in The Gulf Stream and stayed outside wpthe whole time, we could do it in A week or 10 days. This year, it will. E more like 2.5 months if we stay the full month in New Bern.

 

A soft rule we try to follow is to never reach New York City harbor before June 1 (because the water is too cold if we GDR there earlier). Considering that things are still thawing up there, doing it two weeks later this year sounds like the right thing to do,

 

Our southward bound soft rule is to reach Florida no later than November 1. Otherwise, we begins to run in to cold and stormy weather.

 

Carolina Beach State Park

The real soft rule for the whole year is to follow the nice weather. Summer in the north, winter in the south, and fall/spring in the mid Atlantic States. Pretty simple rule huh?

 

In lat/lon what I call our sandbox is 25-45 degrees north, and 73-81degrees west.

 

The Sky The Sky

Neuse River, NC

34 56.959 N 076 40.382 W

 

The passage up was short apbut sweet. Just the right amount of wind, but too much wave action on the beam. We rocked and rolled enough to. Beat a record.

 

Last night on my watch at 0200, I moved my cushion to the forward deck and just admired the stars. They were spectacular. Especially ice was the Milky Way which stood our strongly. Of course out at sea we are far from light pollution, but some nights are much clearer than others. I think it must be low humidity wpthat makes the air clearer. I had a great time just star watching. Not one meterorthough.

 

Coming into Beaufort Inlet we saw what appeared to be some drama. There was a small tug punching in a. Huge floating dredge. The tug appeared to be losing the battle against the wind and was losing control. A giant sea going tug came up behind us, and a river poilot came out from land. They and we all met at the same place at the same time.

 

The little tug backed off. The pilot went on board the barge. The big tug replaced the little tug. But then after one might surge of the big tugs engine, it backed off and headed to shore. Then the little tug returned. After 15 minutes, the big tug did a 180 turn and returned to the scene. We didn't hear any radio traffic, so we couldn't really know what was happening.

 

My guess is that the little tug lost control, asked for emergency help, but then tried to weasel out of paying the enormous bill for the enormous tug. But in the end someone (the pilot?) called the big tug back.

 

We have a very quiet anchorage today. We will catch up on sleep and loafing.

Go, Stop, Go

Wrightsville Beach, NC
34 06.713 N 077 52.372 W

Well, we finally made it to Carolina Beach State Park yesterday at 1800.  It was a very hard slog against that ebb current.  Not recommended.  

On the up side, it gave Libby a chance to gather about a bushel of prime length, prime quality, pine needles.  CBSP has the best ones we've seen anywhere.

This morning, I went on a ranger led tour of the park's carnivorous plants.   That was instructive, because in previous tours of that park, we never spotted them.  Now I know better what to look for.  Also on the tour was a troop of boy scouts and their leaders, who were camping in the park.  I invited the whole troop back to Tarwathie to see a cruising boat.  Then I rushed back to the boat to warn Libby about what I had done.  No problem, the boys got their tour.  They were suitable impressed, and both Libby and I had fun.

By the way, on the plant tour I learned that they do proscribed burns at the park regularly.  The very short pine trees, less than 6 feet tall, get burned regularly.   Those are the ones with the best needles; much nicer than the needles on the adult trees right above them.   I'll bet that the fires are the reason why the needles here are better than elsewhere.

My plan was to motor to Wrightsville Beach today, anchor overnight, then go out the inlet and sail to Beaufort Sunday.   Libby had a better plan.  We'll go outside tonight, sail overnight, and arrive in Beaufort in the morning.   That's what we'll do.

Invention

Cape Fear River, North Carolina

33 58.778 N 077 56.863 W

 

We have been doing pretty good with tides and currents until now. We left Myrtle Beach this morning, and we really want to get to Carolina Beach State Park tonight. We arrived at Southport at 1500, just in time to meet the peak ebb current in the Cape Fear River. Currents in this river are serious! Our best speed at full throttle was only 1.9 knots! But, we stuck with it. Now, 2 hours later, we are up to 3.5 knots and we will reach the destination before sunset.

 

My topic today is invention. I was reminded of that by the following headline and picture.

 

Finnish Inventor Rethinks Design of the Axe

How refreshing to see something old and familiar so thoroughly re-thought. That is the essense of invention.

 

How about nautical things? What great sailing inventions have come along since Libby and I started sailing in the 1970s. GPS comes to mind. That was revolutionary. How about carbon fiber cloth and the high tech yachts of the 2013 America's Cup. Nah, those are all incemental improvements. I think my favorite since 2005 has been LED lighting. But none of those things are the fruit of a single person's inventiveness.

 

I've had some minor brushes with invention myself. I have two patents, but those aren't the things I'm most proud of. My best inventions (software related stuff) all suffered from the same problem -- timeliness. Too late or too early and an invention has no value.

 

My grandfather Mills suffered similar frustrations. He invented the 3-way light bulb, and sold the patent to G.E. for only $25. He invented the mechanical push-button combination door lock. I'm reminded of that all the time because I find those locks on places like gates and bathroom doors of marinas. But grandpa's patent was in 1936 (I think) and the first such locks weren't actually made until the late 1950s after the patent had expired. His invention wasn't timely.

 

My personal best invention was the web browser complete with links. I did it 5 years before Netscape, and 4 years before the web itself. Marc Andreesen and Sir Tim Berners-Lee did their browser and web inventions in a timely way and became famous. My version found zero acceptance. As I promoted it, people kept asking "Browse what?" "Unless you name the kind of information browsed (legal, engineering, finance, literature, ...), we can't understand what your invention is for." I took it to venture capitalist Ben Rosen, soon after Rosen's success with Compaq computers. Rosen hired a consultant from IBM to evaluate my invention. She killed it in her report with the sentence, "Corporate Americe does not want their employees to have access fo unstructured information." Sigh.

 

Even today, you might ask me, "What good was a web browser without a web?" Sigh.