Salt and battery

Bob and Elaine Playle sailed with us to the Deben last year and we were delighted that they jumped at the chance of doing a longer trip. Our plan was to join the East Coast Group of the Westerly Owners Association on a trip to the muddy but lovely Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, which we have never managed to get to, despite trying.

The group was due to meet up Ramsgate on Saturday June 8, and on the Sunday head for Calais, where Dave Jibb keeps his boat, before going to Boulogne, Saint-Valery, then Dieppe and on to Fécamp if time.

Sadly we knew that the end of our trip would be cut short because of the very untimely death of Tim Brook, at the age of just 64. His funeral was due to be on Friday June 21. Bob and I sing together in Rough at the Edges, the a capella group founded by Tim, so we had to get back in time. In addition I had told Margaret, Tim's wife, that I would design an order of service for the funeral, so in quiet moments when we weren't sailing I had to worry about not just the design but also getting it printed. Fortunately it all worked out fine and you can see the order of service online via Facebook.

The weather gods were very doubtful about our venture and offered us some jolly breezes on the Friday and Saturday gusting up to F8. We weren't organised enough to leave on the Thursday, and Bob and Elaine had only just got back from Italy, so we decided to leave on the Sunday for Ramsgate, skip Calais and meet the rest of the rally in Boulogne on Monday.

When we got down to the boat on Saturday afternoon I noticed that the carbon monoxide alarm was going off. Nothing was burning, no engines running, so I pressed the reset button and got on with all the other million things you have to do before a trip. I also noticed that the smell from the stale water in the heads seemed slightly worse than usual. Little did I know...

Sunday dawned with none of the hangover from the previous day's wind which we had feared, and calm seas. We were motoring into light breezes and elected do go down the Black Deep and through Foulger's Gat. Somewhere past the Gunfleet Sand it became clear that the bad egg smell was from one of our domestic batteries which was overheating and discharging hydrogen sulphide. The batteries were taken out to Denmark in 2013 and evidently the new alternator was proving too much for this one. I worked out how to disconnect it and left the other one in place, messaging Lindsay (our engineer) who said we should be ok.

The old batteries in situ, seen from above. The front one was boiling, the back one merely dead

Sailing down the Black Deep with the engine off (almost the only sailing of the day) made it clear that the other domestic battery wasn't holding charge either. Could it get us to Ramsgate if the engine was running? I wasn't sure and  further messages to Lindsay highlighted the fact that we were now outside the phone network. We decided reluctantly to turn back... but after 20 minutes got enough signal to pick up another message from Lindsay saying if the other battery was warm but not hot we would be ok.  Turn again Dick Whittington, and off we motored to Ramsgate.

It wasn't until a couple of days later that Dave Jibb told me that domestic CO alarms also detect hydrogen sulphide, a useful titbit of info for future reference.

Through the London Array at Foulger's Gat