Subject: Yesterday was a good day to be out on the boat
Yesterday was Veteran's Day and what a better way to preserve the joys of life that many have made possible for us, but to take time to have the family out on the boat to enjoy.
We got to the boat a bit late and found my house battery was NOT up to snuff.... boo hiss. Engine started AOK but none of the ancillary equipment would light up. Fussed around a bit and decided to call Kenny. It appeared that having left the boat in its slip for a week, not connected to shore power and with Refer running at #3, the house battery's voltage had dropped sufficiently to not provide power to all the 12v devices. Kenny had me look at the backside of the black relay box on the vertical starboard panel in the engine box bay, and sure enough the green LED was flickering indicating the running engine was not charging the house battery. Kenny's advice was to connect to shore power and wait a bit for the green LED to stop flickering. This I did and after waiting a mere minute or two the green LED stopped flickering 🙂 and all was well as all the 12v devices lit up nicely and the engine was now charging the house battery.
THANKS KENNY..... You saved the day, so to speak.
The way Kenny explained the issue to me was.... if the house battery falls below some voltage threshold (maybe 10v) the black box relay will avoid/stop the engine from charging the house battery. Not quite sure about the logic here, but that's what I understood from Kenny. The green flickering LED on the black relay box indicates the house battery is not being charged by the engine. Once the green LED shines continuously charging is underway. Connecting the shore power to the battery charger was enough to lift the house battery's voltage above the 'threshold' voltage needed for engine charging.
So we got off smartly to cruise Salmon Bay, Lake Union and then around Lake Washington for a few hours. There really was not a whiff of wind to be felt. Waters were dead calm and during all the time we were cruising about no more than one or two boats were seen. There were plenty of skiffs (1 man, 2 man and 8 man ones) out for training as well as some energetic Kayakers with tight fitting woolly hats on. These guys were difficult to spot as the daylight slowly slip away.
We all wanted to see how the work for upgrading the Lake Washington 520 floating bridge was progressing and the time got forgotten. So on our return we were caught with the sun setting well before getting back to our slip close to the locks. Nighttime at this time of year falls quickly and I had to light the boat up with its Nav lights and also decided to use the search light to keep an eye open for the skiffs and Kayaks folks, and yes, they were still gliding silently all around us.
To my horror we came across one or two boats that had no Nav lights on at all. I thought the rule was that Nav lights need to be on no later than when the sun settles. 😱 There was one boat being pulled/towed by a very small inflatable with not a single light on them to be seen, and had it not been for my search light I could have easily have missed seeing them.
We made it back to our slip with maybe some 30 minutes running in the dark.... a first for me.
The enclosed cockpit for our R-21EC did a fine job keeping family warm, even with one panel opened and zipped up. I ran the cabin heater a few times just to keep the young ones happy, but suspect they really did not need it. No one complained about being cold and family really loved to large open cockpit space. The young ones could race up and down from transom into V-berth and back again with ease and enjoyment.
We had a good day and with the 30 minute night cruise we may just decide to do a nighttime Christmas cruise on the Lake with the boat adorned with colorful LED lights.... that should be fun. 😀
Back at the slip just in time for full nightfall.
Yesterday was Veteran's Day and what a better way to preserve the joys of life that many have made possible for us, but to take time to have the family out on the boat to enjoy.
We got to the boat a bit late and found my house battery was NOT up to snuff.... boo hiss. Engine started AOK but none of the ancillary equipment would light up. Fussed around a bit and decided to call Kenny. It appeared that having left the boat in its slip for a week, not connected to shore power and with Refer running at #3, the house battery's voltage had dropped sufficiently to not provide power to all the 12v devices. Kenny had me look at the backside of the black relay box on the vertical starboard panel in the engine box bay, and sure enough the green LED was flickering indicating the running engine was not charging the house battery. Kenny's advice was to connect to shore power and wait a bit for the green LED to stop flickering. This I did and after waiting a mere minute or two the green LED stopped flickering 🙂 and all was well as all the 12v devices lit up nicely and the engine was now charging the house battery.
THANKS KENNY..... You saved the day, so to speak.
The way Kenny explained the issue to me was.... if the house battery falls below some voltage threshold (maybe 10v) the black box relay will avoid/stop the engine from charging the house battery. Not quite sure about the logic here, but that's what I understood from Kenny. The green flickering LED on the black relay box indicates the house battery is not being charged by the engine. Once the green LED shines continuously charging is underway. Connecting the shore power to the battery charger was enough to lift the house battery's voltage above the 'threshold' voltage needed for engine charging.
So we got off smartly to cruise Salmon Bay, Lake Union and then around Lake Washington for a few hours. There really was not a whiff of wind to be felt. Waters were dead calm and during all the time we were cruising about no more than one or two boats were seen. There were plenty of skiffs (1 man, 2 man and 8 man ones) out for training as well as some energetic Kayakers with tight fitting woolly hats on. These guys were difficult to spot as the daylight slowly slip away.
We all wanted to see how the work for upgrading the Lake Washington 520 floating bridge was progressing and the time got forgotten. So on our return we were caught with the sun setting well before getting back to our slip close to the locks. Nighttime at this time of year falls quickly and I had to light the boat up with its Nav lights and also decided to use the search light to keep an eye open for the skiffs and Kayaks folks, and yes, they were still gliding silently all around us.
To my horror we came across one or two boats that had no Nav lights on at all. I thought the rule was that Nav lights need to be on no later than when the sun settles. 😱 There was one boat being pulled/towed by a very small inflatable with not a single light on them to be seen, and had it not been for my search light I could have easily have missed seeing them.
We made it back to our slip with maybe some 30 minutes running in the dark.... a first for me.
The enclosed cockpit for our R-21EC did a fine job keeping family warm, even with one panel opened and zipped up. I ran the cabin heater a few times just to keep the young ones happy, but suspect they really did not need it. No one complained about being cold and family really loved to large open cockpit space. The young ones could race up and down from transom into V-berth and back again with ease and enjoyment.
We had a good day and with the 30 minute night cruise we may just decide to do a nighttime Christmas cruise on the Lake with the boat adorned with colorful LED lights.... that should be fun. 😀
Back at the slip just in time for full nightfall.