Post Bank Holiday

So following the bank holiday sail around the NAB tower, when battery bank 1 seemed to lose charge quickly, skip has been down almost every day to check on me or rather the state of the batteries.  He came to the conclusion that the Rutland 1200 wind turbine isn't charging for some reason.  He's popped some tablets in each of the cells of the batteries that have a problem and keeps checking the specific gravity thereafter.

He's measured the incoming AC voltage which appears to have a maximum of 8-9v, which then concerns him as to re-charge 12.5v batteries you need to reverse the flow of current and to do that you need to be raise the positive side to 13.0v or more (assuming that its a negative earth), so that the current can flow in the opposite direction.  The new alternator skipper fitted to my engine, together with the intelligent regulator, pushes 14.4v back to the batteries at 50amps at 1200rpm, which is similar to the Sterling shore power charger.  He measured the DC side and this only matched the voltage reading the batteries were giving, no increase.

Various e-mails and telephone conversations means that the units MPPT box and remote display is being returned to be checked out.  So hopefully this will be resolved soon and my electrics can return to a tip top condition.

This weekend my crew turned up with a couple of guests.  The wind on Saturday was around 20 knots and on leaving the Medina I was brought round to head West.  Two reefs in with a fairly lumpy sea state, the guests where not quite so sea fearing, so skip turned my round to run with the wind and ease the motion.  We stopped at Osborne Bay again and everyone was able to eat lunch.  When I return to my berth and skip eventually shut the my engine down, battery bank 1 appeared to have recovered slightly and the voltage remained steady above 12.5v, this didn't happen before and it would drop to 11.7v.  Even the wind generator seemed to try to add the odd 0.1v now and then !

Still he's sending it back on Monday to be tested, as it should, when the engines running slow the turbine down as the powers not needed, this wasn't happening either.  I'll keep you posted !