On February 21, we left the dock at CMO at 1100 GMT. We wanted to beat as much of the wind as we could since it had been unusually strong for the past week or so. Each mile covered before the wind was a mile comfortably traveled. It wasn't a terribly exciting trip. We were never able to sail. However, we averaged 7.5 knots!
At about 1500 GMT, the wind came up with a vengeance. It blew 20 to 30 knots for the entire trip. Since we were heading in to it, we our apparent wind was 27 to 37 knots! As I said before, it wasn't an exciting trip, but it was a wet trip! We were taking spray on the fly bridge because the seas were so choppy.
We dropped anchor in Porlamar at 2000 GMT or about 3:00 pm AST, and that was when the fun began. First we tried to start Tink, our 12.5 KW generator. He started, but without water flow, so he could not be cooled. Then we tried to start Ling-Ling, our 25 KW and she wouldn't even turn over. We checked the voltage on her battery and it turned out that her battery had completely died and was reading about 3 volts! So, we borrowed Tink's battery, and got Ling-Ling started. Then, as we were bringing power on to the boat, we experienced the same problem that we have experienced 3 other times aboard Nightwinds. Our HEART FREEDOM 30 (WHITE BOX) INVERTER/CHARGER COMBI unit made by XANTREX CORPORATION had a circuit board that burned up. We have spent many hours on the phone with Xantrex and we have paid an electrician to double check the wiring and hook ups and we have never been able to find a problem! We knew this was going to happen soon. It happens like clock work about every 10 to 14 months. This inverter was 12 months old. Actually, more specifically, the board that had burned up and been replaced was 12 months old. This wouldn't be so bad, except that it was also the main source for charging out 12 volt bank.
Next the swell had picked up in Porlamar harbor, so we decided to deploy a bridle. While we were doing that, the windlass control shorted out and started going nuts! Finally, it blew its fuse, literally and calmed down. We got the bridle set using the windlass manually, and then spent the evening writing up our to do list. We were stunned to see that the list totaled almost 2 pages of things!
Between February 22 and February 28, we started working on our list of things to repair, and our list of things to order, including a second 50 amp 12 volt charger since we knew we could get that quickly and a new inverter/charger from a company other than Xantrex. That eliminated the top 3 available inverter/chargers on the market since Xantrex bought Heart, Trace and Prosign! In the process of researching inverters, I prepared a list of questions. Without mentioning names, I relayed the problems we have had with our Heart. Invariably, each company we spoke with told us the brand of equipment we had! One person even went on to describe our exact usage of the system. It seems that from our experience the Heart equipment is good as long as you only use it intermittently!