Time for that story I promised you yesterday!

Curled up in the aft cabin, Hal and I could see Orion out of the open hatch as the cooling seabreeze wafted in. Soon a decidedly not so nice smell was also invading the cabin. Much too strong to be mangroves at low tide we decided that our new neighbors were set on making an impression in their new neighborhood.

This small 28 foot sailboat didn't just make a tranatlantic crossing, rather they moved from B-Dock to S. This voyage means they didn't clear the 12 mile out line to empty their holding tanks and rather than pull up to the pump-out a few slips down on S-Dock it appeared they decided to covertly dump their tanks at midnight in the marina.

As we analyzed this situation through sheets drawn up over our noses we could not believe that a little sailboat like that could possibly have more than a 6 gallon tank. But this odor was so strong and kept coming in ever increasing waves that we finally were reduced to trying to guess what in the world it could possibly be.

A dead whale or a black water slick from one of the many cruise ships in town this time of year?

My head ached and I felt definitely nauseous and Hal had reached his limit as well so up the companionway he stormed ready to either confront our neighbors or call the EPA.

Less than a minute later he was back and hollering for me to get out of bed. But rather than grabbing a phone or a boat hook he was tearing the mattress up trying to get at the battery bank.

No. There was not a dead whale beached on our little sand spit nor was there a slick of black water from a holding tank big or little in the basin. Instead one of our very own batteries was burning off under the bed and the sulphuric acid was what we were being subjected too.

After turning off the battery charger the smell evaporated very quickly and we were able to drift off to sleep on the waves of clean fresh air wafting through the open hatch above our heads.



Today we investigate new batteries. I really like von Wentzel's pages comparing various marine battery options. I think I'll be spending a bit of time reading through his links today but I'll leave you with a question:

Do you prefer Gel, Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM), Flooded Lead Acid, or Nickel-Cadmium for your marine or off-grid elecrical needs?