Peter and I had a relaxing few days in Horseshoe Bay at
Magnetic Island before heading into Townsville Marina. It is while we were in Horseshoe Bay for a
couple of days that I did not run the engine and we discovered that the house batteries
were failing. This was both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate that the
problem occurred near a big town that we are able to source batteries and
unfortunate that the previous batteries only lasted 3 years despite maintaining
them well. These were wet cell lead acid batteries that require topping up with
distilled water every 3 months which I did religiously and kept them charged at
all times. I since discovered these are only truck batteries masquerading as
deep cycle batteries. They were cheap so I got what I paid for. This time I
have decided to convert to AGM batteries which are sealed and low maintenance. This was the advice from the guys at The Battery
Business in Warriewood. They were fantastic on advice, price and service and had
the batteries delivered to the marina in 2 days. The only trouble is they weigh
73kgs each.
146kgs of batteries
I had a real battle to get them into the yacht. I called on the
marina dock manager to help me carry them into Billabong. I then managed to get
them into the seats by myself by building steps from timber I found at the
marina. I could manage to lift the batteries 4 inches at a time until I got
them onto the seat and dropped them into place. A very big job but I was very
relieved when it was all completed. I just hope these last as I am not looking
forward to getting the batteries out again.
While that was going on Peter flew out and Tamara flew in to
be the crew for the next couple of months at least. Tamara has recovered well
from her operation and is looking forward to the rest and relaxation that
cruising the Palm Islands provides. The weather outlook is very good with hot
sunny days ahead.
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