La Foresteria
The time had come to sail to the final island in the Canaries, El Hierro.
The morning of departure we were up and ready before sun up to enable us to arrive in daylight. Ignition - start button - nothing! After some investigation, the problem seamed to be a flat battery. Still determined to go, I used the battery combiner to start the engine and off we went.
The wind was all over the place so we didn't get much sailing in, motoring most of the way. Just out of the lee of La Gomera we took down our mainsail due to what looked liked an approaching squall. Then we heard a loud bang......the engine battery had exploded (not again!). The squall never arrived and without our mainsail we were rolling from side to side. The battery casing was badly damaged and acid was spilling out with every movement. We felt bad about doing it but could see no alternative except to throw the battery over the side (with rubber gloves and goggles). The spilt acid was neutralized with bicarbonate of soda......crisis controlled.
When we arrived at Restinga, El Hierro we were very grateful to be directed to a berth by a number of other sailors who helped us to tie up. Thank you!
Inspecting our battery setup the next day, l realized that the engine battery was getting a constant charge from the shore power battery charger that was too dumb to differentiate between our two banks even though it has two outputs. So a rethink and a new battery from the next village, El Pina. Delivered by the local bus and we are up and running again....I hope! One of our house batteries was also flat, so now I am keeping a very close eye on the remaining 2 - showing green lights and the engine battery only gets charged when I want it charging.
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