Broken Battery at Jones Island Hardly Slowed Us Down - Or is it more proof that paying it forward really works

  What happens when your boat breaks down?   

You have a few options, Fix it yourself, get help from another boater, call for a tow. We managed to fix it on our own.

This post could go several ways

I'll list a few.  

#1 More proof that paying it forward is alive and well
#2 Evidence that being prepared helps (well duh)
#3 Dumb luck favors the ignorant (not true, but it reads well)
#4 Redundancy - redundancy - redundancy
#5 Do County Cops work late?
#6 Do regular auto parts work on boats?

I'll just hit the important points. 

     We were on the hook at Jones for two days, the battery switch was clearly on #1, saving #2 for starting.  Lights and the fridge killed #1 as expected.  But what we did not know, was that #2 had shorted while in rough water out in Haro Strait and now only held 6-8 volts -it sounded like this -- #2 click click, #1 click click, oh crap!  #both click click, shit!  

I fired up the portable Honda 2000 and plugged in the shore-power cord, plus I plugged in my portable smart charger, only to discover that my onboard Guest 2 bank smart charger wasn't smart enough to coexist with my portable smart charger, meaning nothing worked -  grrrrrr.

One and a half hours later, after separating wiring charging circuits and waiting and waiting, the diesel fires up.  I am of course, not going to turn it off for anything.

Previously (before discovering all my batteries are dead) I had pulled the stern anchor, against my own advice to not pull anchors until the motor is idling. So I'm frantically re-anchoring my dead boat from grrrrr- the dinghy - nice show for everyone at Jones Island watching and wondering what I am doing.

When we arrive at the San Juan County Dock in Eastsound 2 hours later, I squeeze our thirty feet onto fifteen feet of vacant dock right under the sign saying four hours max. (or is it two?)and -no over-nighting- grrrr

At midnight the local constable wrote us a warning and taped it to the stern rail. It said -vacate immediately- or risk getting cited.  Midnight! grrrrrr, I know it was midnight cause he wrote 11:55 pm in the box.

The next day, a really nice guy living offshore in a boat gave us a ride to NAPA,(he owned a rusty Land Cruiser)(it was his inflatable I squeezed) and he carried the new battery down to the boat for me (see, paying it forward works).

By noon we were in good shape and on our way back to Jones Island.

        OK, lets wrap this up.   Our misadventure turned out to be slightly inconvenient at most.  We got to bike around Eastsound and had breakfast out.  The battery I bought, I would have bought anyway.  We met a nice guy.  It was creepy knowing a cop had been hanging around our boat while we slept.

The lessons learned are:

1. don't pull anchors until the motor is running or your ready to hoist sail
2. don't leave home without the Honda. (we have a Honda kicker too)
3. get an old fashioned dumb charger for the tool bag
4. have two batteries that work if you're going cruising overnight
5. stuff happens, and things break at inconvenient places -  be prepared
6. be flexible, take it easy  (and bring a credit card)

Current Page Tables for use with the Canadian Current Atlas of the San Juans

     Are the old current charts still accurate?   

Yes, they will be good forever, it is the page number that you need to know because like the tides they repeat year after year but you need to know which pages have the correct charts for your cruise.  Just like tide forecasts need a date/time and location to be useful, so do the current charts.

Here is  a url to find date tables for use with the Canadian Current Atlas. There are others online, or you can do the mathematics outlined in the front of the Canadian Atlas.

http://code.borsboom.io/current-atlas-tables/

If you don't know what this is referring to, you need to go to the Current Atlas guide posting several years ago  >> go now by clicking this link 

Current atlas for San Juans and Gulf Islands


BTW if you find something you like, or helps you, you should say so.  Lots of people work for nothing, not even a thank you!

No No Not me, I work for nothing cause I'm bored
JR

Big arrows are faster currents. An hour later or earlier will be different. What you need is a date and time for this forecast. That's why you need a page table for the current atlas, just like you need the date and time when you look up tide forecasts.