We're going to Ibiza

August 25th I left for Ibiza. As always, I left late in the afternoon. No autopilot, but is was going to be close hauled, so no problem. Since my last crossing, I have learned that it is a lot more frustrating to have no wind, than to have a little to much wind. The forcasts were predicting windforce 4-5, with a day of 6 in the middle. Windforce 6 is now problem for Madame Curie, so I left. A "seasonal low" was passing through the Med, and as long as I stayed rather south, I would miss the eye. So heading for Ibiza was more sensible than heading to the much closer Mallorca. Ibiza here I come. Just outside Cagliari there is a traffic seperatien scheme, this is a sort of highway in the sea. You are only allowed to sail in the indicated direction, or you have to move to the sidewalk (inshore traffic zone). Because the wind was to much on the nose, I had to engine for 45 minutes. Then I hoisted the sails and watched the evening fall in. After about 2 hours my
AIS gave an alarm; bad connection. This means I can still see the other boats, but I am no longer transmitting my position. Grrr. Disconnected all the connections, reconnected everything, and..... conection problem. Frustrating. Because by now it was completely dark, I had to give up and accept the situation. I will look again tomorrow. First some nice sailing. After about two hours I noticed that my navigation lights were not so bright. Hmmm, are my batteries empty? I was connected to shore power the entire time. Is my charger broken?  Quickly measured my batteries; 10 volts. I'll first run the engine for a couple of hours and then
I' ll see if the batteries are charged. As soon as the engine was running, the navigation lights were working, the AIS was working, and the alternator of the engine was working fine. Oef. Despite charging my batteries for 3 hours via the engine, and turning off the largest powerconsumer, the fridge, the navigation lights dimmed after two hours, and the AIS stopt transmitting again.

What are the odds of both batteries breaking down at the same time? It's probably just one. Take out the floorboards, disconnecting one of the batteries. Which one is broken? The both had the same voltage (they were connected) so I took a random change. In port this would have been very easy, but as predicted there was a windforce 4-5 so the boat was moving about, and I didn't want to shortcut the circuit. And if you batteries are not working, you don't have lighting in the boat either. So I was on the floor with a flashlight on my head trying to work it out.

This was the start of an experiment. One battery connected, engening for an hour, and then checking if the battery is charged. If I choose wrongly, it's the other battery that is still working. Right?

During the night I was busy with the experiment, on the one I could run the navigation lights for 4 hours, on the other only 2. Sight. Ok it's back to no AIS. After 4 hours also tha chartplotter stopped working. Dubble sight.

I ended up turning off everything, and during the night, when I need my navigation lights I ran the engine for 2 hours, and could then keep the lights running for an other 4 hours. After that I had to run the engine again. I did learn how much I have become used to the luxaries of a chartplotter, AIS, en the fridge and inside lighting.  The Red Dragon (my previous boat) didn't have these luxaries. The inside lighting was run on penlights.

I had to accept the situation, and tried to get some sleep. When I went on deck after one of my naps, I saw my navigation light blinking on and off. Oh no, loose contact. Four more waves, and that was the end of the navigation light. Fortunately I have more lighting, so I turned on the navigation lighting for when I am under engine, and ducktaped a very brigth flashlight to the mast to shine into the sail. The other boats must have thought what is this? But at least I was visible!!!

The day when the seasonal low passeed, gave me a windforce 7, but the waves were propotional, so it was okay. It was a very quick crossing, 380 miles in 103 hours. Around midnight I berthed in Ibiza. Rained wet and tired. For the first time in months it has rained, a short shower but it was right on my head!!. And then I fell asleep.