As with everything on a yacht, this too was no easy feat. First the lid of the battery box was trimmed to size early this morning, then the battery pack had to be lifted from the cockpit seat onto towels we’d positioned on the cockpit table. From there the pack was dragged and pushed across our makeshift “bridge”, along the port deck and positioned on top of the anchor locker. Once the old batteries had been removed and our hoisting system in place, using the spinnaker halyard, Elaine winched as Roy positioned the pack and it was slowly lowered into the battery compartment area.
After getting everything in place in the battery compartment, it was then a matter of wiring the smart relays to the BMS, connecting the battery cables and voilà! However, initially we switched the battery pack on with only the solar as the charging source to monitor and adjust the configuration.
Next steps involve re-configuring the Victron Multiple Plus for the other charge sources ie for the generator, the wind generator and the alternators. However, we’d barely tidied up and got everything secured, when the heavens opened again, accompanied by winds in excess of 30 Kts, after pouring down most of last night. This meant that we started the engines, to be sure, to be sure, given that the storm had come out of the southeast, putting us on a lee-shore, but, having the engines on, gave us the opportunity to monitor the impact of the alternators on the new batteries too.
What’s extremely annoying about the weather here in Thailand, though, is that we’ve patiently endured the very rainy Southwest Monsoon season, but the only difference now with the onset of the Northeast Monsoon season, is the direction the storms are coming from; it is relentless!
We’ve spent months squeezing our yacht projects, outings and explorations into the precious few bright, sunny days we’ve had in between the storms and, worse, the remainder of our stay seems to be stacking up to continue in the same vein, potentially reducing the possibility of exploring a few more areas we’d like to see in Phang Nga Bay and Krabi before our departure. Fortunately we’ve explored the west coast by car, so if we don’t get to sail it, that won’t be a huge disappointment.
Regardless, this evening, with the rain continuing and lightning visible in the distance again, Roy cooked up a fresh seafood dish, accompanied by a nice cold beverage, to celebrate his achievement. All his hard work had come to fruition. Well done Captain Roy!
