The trip to St. Maarten

The past 36 hours have been and adventure!!! We left at 1:30PM from Soper's Hole for St. Maarten. This would give me the 20 hours I need, plus add a bunch of fudge to the numbers incase the current and winds were adverse. Good thing, It took use 25 hours to get here. At first we motored out of Soper's Hole then put up a reefed main to motor sail, once we were well south of Peter Island, we put up a head sail. This was working great but as we entered the eastern side the waves and chop increased. We sailed until we were 5 miles south of the rhumb line then did a tack.
We were getting a lot of "Spankers". Spankers is my term for waves the come 60 to 120 degrees off the main wave pattern. These are the waves that interface with the main wave swell to create these big peaks that "SPANK" the side of your hull with a load slap/vibration through the hull/heel over and then they dump a lot of green water onto the deck. By sunset we where getting spanked every 5 minutes are so and that was making life rough for me and the dogs. On the tack back to the rhumb line, the spankers got worse so after about an hour when we got back on the line, we pulled down the head sail and left up a reefed main and pushed the engine to 2000 RPM to get 4kts of speed. ("We" as in me and the dogs, lot of help they are, eh). The seas didn't let up. The waves were driven by 25kts of wind and we were being slowed down to 2kts of speed when the wave sets (usually 3 waves) would shut the speed down. Now for the fun parts :) At about 8:30 at night the engine starting making a sound I've never heard. I look and she had increased RPMs to 2200. The switch was in the off position to stop the secondary alternator from charging. I slowed down the RPMs and pulled the floor boards to see if the shaft was vibrating. Nothing… After a few minutes, all the power shut down on the boat! Motor sailing with the engine key in the off position in bad conditions and the power shuts off everything, this is not good.
I know what this is… the house bank computer is shutting down the power as it's only way to prevent the main bank from overcharging to a dangerous state. This is a safety mechanism for LifePO batteries. This happened once before on the return from Bermuda because I wasn't paying attention. This time was different, the alternator was shutdown by the engine key being in the "off" position…. But still something went really badly wrong.

I run down the hatch, join the batt banks and all is good, turn on the MFDs, Auto, etc and get the systems back up and get the Auto Pilot engaged. No problem, but What Caused This?
I then run back down and turn the main batt switch off so that it cannot be charged or discharged. I also turn the inverter on to suck power of the system.

Next I reset the house bank computer after disconnecting it from everything else and as soon as I do that, the Inverter starts to scream. OVER POWER 18.8V
Shit! It's night, I'm offshore, sweating like a big pig working with a headlamp in rough seas trying to figure this out. The engine key is off and that should stop any charing from the big alternator, but now with the engine key off and the computer that controls the field current relay reset, the system is seeing high voltage. What do you do? I can't run in this weather without the engine or charging. I debated down wind sailing back to the BVI. Instead, I throttled the engine down until I was seeing 15.2 volts. It worked, but Auto couldn't maintain course with such low power and it was shutting down and bitching. No Auto while single handed is not an option for doing boat repair in the ocean… Heave to… not yet. But still an option.

How to get the engine to run at speed and keep the big secondary alternator off… Hummm I though about a bunch of things and it was obvious - the field current is controlled by a relay that can be switch it off. Just pull the plug on the relay. Auto is bitching off course and the wave are hitting us broadside. Run up deal with auto and manually steer for a few second. Run down, rip out the settee and find a screw driver (cause safety regs say that this must require a special tool, ugh). Pull the panel and pull the field current wire of the regulator - big flash and spark… All is good 13.8 volts now - boat running on the secondary battery bank and the little Hitachi alternator, even better the engine back up to 2000 RPMs. House bank is still isolated but Okay. Can't get it back online safely while the engine is running cause if it is fully charged, even the little Hitachi alternator will cause problems.

So if that wasn't enough. As I said, the past 36 hours were and adventure!!! At 4:30 AM (I know that cause the watch commander is yelling at me every 30 min to make sure I'm not asleep) the biggest SPANKER I've ever experienced hits the boat while i'm sitting under the dodger. I think, "god that's big" as the entire boat shakes and shimmies. I close the companion way hatch and brace myself for a starboard SPANKER that hit mid-ship or just aft of mid-ship. As the boat begins to heel, I hear the water smashing down and running on the boat. Good thing I'm under the dogger or I would have taken several hundred gallons of ocean over my head. As I watch this wave hit the dodger it moves aft and poops the cockpit filling it with water and then as the boat is heeled over the wave washes over the pulpit and rips the outboard motor for the dingy off the pulpit leaving nothing behind, not even a fragment of the safety line that I use to the outboard to the pulpit. I had mounted the engine as usual, clamped it down on the board tightly and even installed the security bar and pad lock. This wave just lifted her right off the pulpit and sent her down over 2000ft to the bottom. So now my feet and legs are wet from the cockpit being pooped and my shirt is wet from the water that rushed up the dodger base and my outboard motor is gone. This is why we are always connect to a hard-point or the jackline at all time in the ocean. This thing came out of nowhere… I was starting to relax cause the winds were calming to under 20kts and the waves were easing…. (to many of you, this was not a rogue wave because it was less the 3X the prevailing wave height of 9 ft * if it were more than 27ft high it could be rogue - this wave just lucky or we where visited by "Murphy's law * either way it was a 14ft SPANKER). Guess Jupiter will be approving a new outboard :) Good news, we made it and the pulpit and all other gear is still attached. The dink was shifted off her tie-downs but still firmly attached!

Now for the crazy part. All night I kept hearing music (Country music mixed with Christmas Songs). I know for a fact the Stereo is turned off (no power to it). I'm beginning to suspect my dental work…. or event that I'm imagining this, but these are honky-tonk songs I've never heard before and the words are clear.. I start thinking that I'm Charlie on the return from Bermuda where he is saying that there is Mariachi music playing (he is on SCOPE) I'm not on SCOPE but I here this music. Finally when we get to port and the engine if off, the stereo is clearly planing some AM station on all the speakers while it is turned off and powered off… Like a big crystal radio it is still receiving some Mexican *opps no Caribbean* radio station.

Time for a Rum and Bed. It's been a long 36 hours. I hope it rains tonight to wash all the salt crust off the boat and rigging.

PS After all the mess to get puppy papers, I cleared into the French side of the island and showed them the St Maarten Health Cert and clearance for the dogs… the lady said, "Oh we don't do that here, we love dogs"