Our stay in Santa Barbara, although unexpected, has been a good one. We have fixed up the issues we had with charging our batteries and also had time to deal with a few other little niggles we had after 16 days at sea. With all the DIY completed in the morning and Doris ready to go we were able to take the afternoon off and have a well overdue chance to relax and enjoy a rest before heading back out on the ocean. Nats and Laura headed to the beach whilst Izzy and myself went for a walk up to inspiration point to enjoy the beautiful views which stretch out to Conception Point which we’ll be heading towards when we set out later. We also enjoyed a very tasty last dinner in the clam bar at the marina. Today we are off to pack our personal kit in the boat and then meet Sarah before heading off ensuring that our departure take 2 is recorded for the documentary. A blog post isn’t enough to thank all the incredibly kind and supportive people who we have met here and we’d love to visit again when we have more time to appreciate it. We have been overwhelmed by the support and following we have had from home whilst we were at sea. If you want to get a message to us while we are rowing then send an email to doris@coxlesscrew.com and it will get forwarded on to us. Receiving messages of support and the happenings of the real world brings a smile to our faces in our little bubble on the ocean.
A number of people have been asking the questions of exactly what happened to cause us to turn around and so I wanted to share with you a little more detail into our reasoning and also how our sponsors have been extremely supportive in helping to rectify and prevent any re-occurrence.
As we mentioned in an earlier blog, we sustained some flooding into the hatch that housed our batteries and the IP65 box which contained all the charge controllers and battery monitoring system to recharge our batteries. We have a clear lid on the battery hatch so that we could check it easily on a daily basis but it wasn’t until I noticed that there was condensation in the IP65 box that I thought there must be water in there and when I looked more closely I saw the flooding. Typically we had put all the charge controllers into an IP65 rated box to ensure that no water was to ever come near the system incase of any flooding, but unfortunately when we opened the box we found there to be 1 screw missing which is the only entrance point into the box which must have been how water got in.
1 of the MPPT boxes, which is the clever box that regulates the charge gets as much energy from the panels into the battery and safely charges at 14.2Vdc. This MPPT had stopped working and overheated due to the water and humidity that was within the box. Initially at this stage MPPT 2 was still in working order so we knew we had at least 1 charging system intact for one battery. Our solar panels are so efficient and wired in series, so we have 2 sets of series on the boat each set linked to 1 MPPT.
Once we had bailed out the hatch and closed off any further charging through the MPPT, I didn’t want anyone staying in that cabin that night incase of further overheating of electrical equipment. So we left the hatch open to air and dry out, whilst we had the boat on para anchor, we then continued with 2 hour shifts with 2 of us sitting on deck whilst the other shift got into the forecabin for warmth. Can’t say it was the most comfortable night! This way we waited until daylight to see what the full damage was and to make a decision on whether we continued forward to Hawaii or to turn around.
Initially we still had 1 working charging system so we decided to push forward to Hawaii as we knew we had plenty of power to continue.Once we started rowing though and I went to tidy up the MPPT connections and wires, I noticed the other MPPT had also gone. This automatically made the decision for us to have to turn around. If we were half way to Hawaii then we would be able to survive on all of our back ups I.e. Handpump watermaker, handheld GPS, handheld VHF, back up satellite phone and spare battery, solar monkey chargers. As we weren’t half way and have 6months of rowing ahead of us, it seemed the obvious and sensible decision to return to land.
Regardless of the flooding half way up the batteries, they were unscathed and continued to work well as the terminals were completely intact. Once we’d disconnected the MPPT’s, at that time we had 60% state of charge in each battery. With both batteries 90amp/Hr each, this meant we still had plenty of battery to use on our return to land, so even after 6 days of use for our GPS, AIS, VHF and charging our sat phone,we came in with approx 30% in each battery and voltage still maintained at 12.9v each.
On entrance into Santa Barbara, Tony Humphreys our onshore support was there at hand to assist us in sorting out the issues we had. The main issues was finding where the flood had come from and ensuring we could prevent it from reoccurring. Then we reviewed the electronics and Johannes our sponsor from Victron was amazing and was on hand regularly (even at 11pm his time!) to respond and assist in our decision making with where to move the MPPTs and BMS system. Collectively we decided they needed to be out of the bilge so there wasn’t risk of flooding if it reoccurred, then to be somewhere with better ventilation. This was partly my fault previously as I was so particular about preventing any water entering around the electronics, that I had asked for them to be put in an IP65 box, not thinking that if water did enter it would end up being like a greenhouse in there!
We then had to hunt around for an electrician to be able to do the work under Tony’s supervision so after a few phone calls by Kenny in Santa Barbara, he found Jason who very kindly made himself available at such short notice to do the work.
Johannes from Victron (amazing sponsor support) very kindly sorted out for Justin from Maine, USA to fly down for a day to oversee and double check that all the Victron equipment was up and running efficiently. It was great to have Justin there as there were a couple of wiring issues that weren’t quite right, so he made the necessary adjustments and by late Friday afternoon we were all up and running again – 100% batteries, solar charge bringing the MPPTs to float, monitors all working and BMS units with 2 lovely blue lights. It is such a relief to have a fully functional system again :).
Some people prefer the old lead acid system to be fitted in their ocean rowing boat, but you tend to only get 60% out of your solar and the efficiency of the batteries slowly deminish over time as sulphur builds up. I love our lithium system and personally wouldn’t use anything else. The wiring is slightly more complicated but the system is so easy to use, means you get 99% out of your solar panels and the batteries maintain voltage right down to less than 20% state of charge. The reason the MPPTs failed was our fault for not noticing the flood in the hatch or into the Ip65 box as the wiring doesn’t mix with water or extreme humidity, which neither would any other battery system.
On this occasion we were very fortunate and the whole process of getting things sorted has reassured us even further of all the experts we have behind us in supporting this venture. Without Tony, Johannes, Jason and Justin, we would have been in more of a pickle. One thing is for sure, no matter how much training I did before coming away, I’d say this has only worked in our favour to now in realtime know more about our battery system inside and out and all the problem shooting involved.
We continue to be overwhelmed by the support we are receiving. In addition to all of the kind emails, messages on our blog and social media, ever since we arrived in Santa Barbara there have been people willing to help us out in
whatever way they can.
We already feel very at home at the Santa Barbara marina, where we have a small crowd of friends and helpers. Kenny from The Chandlery Yacht Sales (www.chandlery.com) and his dog, Tilly, took Tony and Sarah out on his boat
as we were approaching Santa Barbara and has been a great source of information and help ever since. Larry kindly fashioned some new grab rails for us using his sail sewing machine and introduced us to, among other people, Joseph. Joseph, who makes beautiful furniture, took the time to make us some boxing to turn our fore cabin vents into an internal dorade vent to prevent water coming in. Jason, the electrician, came at short notice, did a great job and worked a long day to help us out. Michael kindly drove Ems and I out to Costco and waited patiently while we selected food for our replacement snack packs. Thank you all so much for your help.
It was also lovely to see some familiar faces from home yesterday. Anna Carboni and her husband Marius came by to meet Doris and very kindly treated us all to a big Mexican feast. I used to work for Anna and her current firm, Redd Solicitors, very kindly helped the crew with pro bono legal advice in the run up to the start line. It was great fun to catch up with friends from home and Anna and Marius also bought us some handy guides to birds and fish, so hopefully we will be able to identify what we are looking at going forward!
This evening we took Doris out for a short spin in the bay to double check that the autopilot and water maker are running smoothly. We saw two whales just off the pier and a beautiful sunset. Another lovely day in Santa Barbara.
What a strange sensation being back on solid ground.
I’ve spent blocks of time on boats before. My longest stint was similar in time to what we’ve just done on Doris – but the feeling I had stepping back on land this time was the strangest by far. Instead of the usual sea legs – when you walk in a zig zag, I actually felt like Mr Soft! Do you remember Mr Soft? I was bobbing up and down and almost strutting my way down the pontoon and felt blind drunk! It was bizarre.
This feeling has remained with us for the last couple of days…and is only now subsiding.
Slipping back into our monophasic sleeping pattern has actually taken a little adjustment for some but personally I’m enjoying a bed and the long period of continuous hours spent in it.
My first shower was a little disappointing as I had offered to go in the slightly dodgy looking bathroom with the large bath tub and hand held shower as I was not washing my hair. I had taken the decision to tackle the hair wash and comb first thing in the morning as my hair was almost beginning to dread and figured it would take a while to remedy. As it turned out the shower actually didn’t work and so I had to crouch near the taps in the bath tub and splash water over me fairly ineffectively to clean.
Far from ideal and if this had been Hawaii and my first shower in over 55 days – I would probably have cried. All good though…as it had only been 16 days as we are in Santa Barbara!! Something to bare in mind though. I may have to send Tony to do a shower recce in Honolulu.
We’ve spent the last couple of days getting things sorted with Doris. Although we obviously have the main job of fixing the electronics, this unscheduled stop has also given us an opportunity to make minor adjustments and improvements that we wouldn’t ordinarily have done. Every cloud has a silver lining.
We’ve all busied ourselves with different jobs on the boat and I’ve had the opportunity to use the drill again. I love drills!!
It’s also been great being in Santa Barbara as it’s a weird and wonderful place. Everyone seems to have got the work/lifestyle ratio spot on.
As they are laid back and clearly enjoy the mild climate and seaside location. Everyone, young or old, actually looks like a surfer!!
We had a little contamination in one of our snack pack hatches and lost 20 snack packs due to water damage, so we are also re-packing those as well as the 40 odd other snack packs that we went through during the 16 days at sea. Lots of dried mango going into these ones as this is everyone’s favourite treat.
One of the biggest positives about coming back to land on an unscheduled stop as been the fact that we have had an opportunity to see how much amazing support we have behind us. It’s humbling, motivating and uplifting and is only making us want to get back out there quicker. Thank you so much everyone.
Words fail to express how much you are all inspiring us. You are all incredible! x
We also want to give some extra thanks to Ella and Kirsten who make up our incredible support team and have been doing the wonderful job of keeping us informed out on the ocean and keeping the website and social media pages up to date with news, stories and insights. You’re superstars and we can’t thank you enough for helping us to share our journey. It wouldn’t be what it is without you guys.
We will keep you updated with our estimated departure date but we are hoping to be ready from Saturday.
Day 16 started in the early hours of the night with our usual friendly stormy winds and waters as we approached into the Santa Barbara channel. The night seemed especially cold and wet, we all struggled but powered through getting up for our 2hr shifts & having to get back into our soaking wet weather gear. The last shift I certainly struggled to keep my eyes open and according to Nats I started to talk gobbledygook in my weariness! For about three shifts during the night once the wind died down we then had a ground hog moment and it felt like we were rowing through treacle as the currents were against us. Once again we had to draw on some patience whilst we rowed for 2hrs but didn’t move any more than half a mile! Nat and I resorted to singing ‘there were 4 in the bed & the little one said roll over…’ Although we wanted to see how long it would take if we started with 100 hundred in the bed! Each count down was then said in a different accent much to our own amusement!
When sunrise came so did the current and we started to skip along again in the right direction. We had beautiful blue skies and finally today for the first time in 16 days we have experienced prevailing winds and seas which has been bliss!
Just after lunch today we had a boat that approached us and as it came closer to our delight we saw Tony and Sarah with her filming :)! It was so lovely to see them, such a relief and reassurance to have Tony around as we just know he’s got everything under control to support us as soon as we reach shore. Sarah is just amazing to be here and collecting all the footage but she’s also such a huge support and reckon she’s becoming a good friend to us all. It’s also surreal as it really doesn’t feel like we’ve not seen them for 16days!
We’re now coming into the final hour of our approach into the harbour where we are looking forward to a hot shower and most importantly a massive burger and chips with an ice cold pint of coke – can’t wait! Xx
Last night we came back into sight of shore. During the early night shifts we were speeding along at over 2.5knots but then the tide changed and as we are now close enough to shore for this to affect us we slowed to a painful crawl. I also spent most of the night with ‘there was an old lady who swallowed a fly’ going round and round my head thanks to Izz! There was some late night DIY needed on our seats and then first thing this morning we crossed the main shipping channel into Los Angeles. Fortunately despite our slow speed we made it across without getting mown down by any of the container ships passing by. Laura discovered a new winning breakfast combination of apple and custard mixed with porridge and I found a beef and potato hotpot for lunch after a week of rummaging the hatches for it. Now that we are close to land there are a lot of birds again. Our favourite penguin birds are back and there are lots of crazy little white birds as well who make a lot of noise.
We now need to row another approximately 50nm along the coast line to Santa Barbara where Tony will meet us to do some work on Doris before departure on leg one part 2. The sun is shining again today and Harry the humpback whale visited us briefly this morning. The wind has picked up and we are surfing the waves into land. Spirits are high and now we have come to terms with the disappointment of having to turn back to shore we are looking forward to a shower and some tasty food before getting back out on the ocean with Doris.
So, as previously reported, as we have lost the ability to charge both of our batteries, we are heading to Santa Barbara. We have good conditions and are making our way there with an estimated arrival time of Tuesday morning. Tony is meeting us there and we hope to be able to quickly remedy the problems with Doris and head back on our way. It is very frustrating for us to be diverted and doubtless it will be difficult to get back on the boat to restart for Hawaii, but it was the only realistic and safe option for us and we are all trying to take it in our stride and are in good spirits.
It has helped that we have had a few days of much better weather. We are rowing 24-7 two hours on two hours off now and settling into the sleep pattern. Last night’s night shifts were easier than some of the previous ones. We were less tired and the moon (nearly full) was peeping through occasionally and turning the water silver. Today we finally have sunshine. Our Crewsaver wet weather gear has come off for the first time since we left San Francisco! The Pacific is as flat as a mill pond. This morning we rowed through blankets of jelly fish and Laura and Nat were rowing with dolphins very close to the boat. Ems and I saw a pod of about 20 jumping on the horizon. We all keep seeing a mysterious fin flopping around above the water. It’s attached to something quite big, but it’s not coming close enough for us to see what. We think it might be a basking shark.
Now that we’re heading for land, we’ve started to all imagine what it will be like to step off the boat, shower and what we want to eat! I can only imagine how exciting it will be to be making those plans again next time when we are approaching Hawaii.
Try as we might, the universe seems to have been a little against us these last couple of weeks. We have done everything in our power to head West and catch the trade winds that blow from the East to help us in our journey to Hawaii. We’ve battled sea sickness, huge ocean swells and 25 knot winds and we were happy to keep moving when we could stroke by stroke and eventually head in the right direction. This has unfortunately had to be halted for the moment. You may notice that we are now moving East. We have had a frustrating and totally depressing last 48 hours with not only losing one of our MPPT boxes (connection between solar panels and batteries) but now both of them. There appears to have been a leak somewhere in one of the hatches that made its way into the battery hatch yesterday. Despite us carefully double checking everything as well as having all battery and MPPT parts covered in IP65 waterproof cases, battery 2 MPPT blew and just as we had made a group decision to continue on MPPT 1 and battery 1 (as many ocean rowers only have 1 battery to begin with), we lost the MPPT to battery 1 yesterday afternoon!
We have been informed that we can make it back to Santa Barbara and there our intention is to get the battery system looked at and still make it within our weather window to get back out and hopefully make it into the illusive trade winds to complete the first leg of the journey to Hawaii and keep raising the money and awareness for our charities.
Thank you all for ongoing support. It means so much to us.
We will fight and overcome all our adversities as that is what our challenge is all about!
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