Bilge Yoga

BOATDATE: 29072019
CANAL: Worcester and Birmingham
HEADING: Nowhere
WEATHER: Steamy, again
FUEL STATUS: There is some
WATER STATUS: Wet.
TOILET STATUS:  Full, listing to starboard now
BATTERY STATUS: 11.6v!!!! EEK!

Bilge Yoga is like Goat Yoga but twice as effective and done in bilges and you need special pants. There are various poses: cutting the alternators throat, rewiring the domestics, degreasing the pumps etc etc. It all involves bodily contortions that make the Karma Sutra look amateurish. The resting voltage of the domestics was down at 11.6 volts. This is bad, very bad - see the chart - It means the alternator, although it is outputting the correct voltage to charge the starter battery, it is not sharing this goodliness with the three leisure batteries which means they will die, alone, in a ditch, like dogs.


There doesn't seem to be a split charge relay so maybe it's a faulty diode in the alternator? I will have to find out. Meanwhile I am re-wiring so that the leisure batteries will receive charge from the alternator but I will have to watch out for overcharging which can be as damaging to the batteries as undercharging them.

Also, I left my loaf of bread in the shop. Dammit!