We are glad we made a stop in Lanzarote, where the landscapes are very different from the other Canary Islands. From there, we sailed to Madeira. This is the opposite direction to the usual sailing route. Because the prevailing winds, used by explorers and merchants since the age of time, blow from the north.
HAND STEERING
The crossing from La Palma to Lanzarote takes about 40 hours (230 nm). It goes from west to east and we could take advantage of northerly winds this time.
Towards the middle of the second day, the electricity suddenly went off. This meant that all the equipment we have on board for sailing (auto-pilot, chart plotter, AIS, radar, etc.) or for living (fridge), were no longer working. We were too far to see Lanzarote and still had a long way to go.
While Yan was investigating what was happening, Silvia was handsteering using a compass and the wind indicator at the top of the mast.
Fortunately, before nightfall and getting too close to the coast and shipping lanes, Yan set up the back-up computer with the charts (powered via the inverter which was the only way to use the energy of the battery). This allowed us to know where we were and to confirm that we were heading in the right direction. He aslo figured out how to get the auto-pilot working, while turning off the rest of the equipement. This made it easier to continue our journey overnight. To our surprise, when we turned on the motor to get to Arrecife, everything started working again.
It turned out that the Vicron battery protect was faulty and needed to be replaced. Thankfully, there are good ship chandlers in Arrecife and Yan was able to procure the required parts (more details upon request).
ARRECIFE
Lanzarote is the easternmost island in the Canary Island archipelago, about 100 km west of Morooco. Arrecife is the main town with a big commercial harbour and marina.
Under the impulse of local artist and architect CĂ©sar Manrique, Lanzarote shifted away from mass-tourism toward a high-value, more sustainable model. It imposes limits to the access of natural sites and strict architectural rules (e.g. whitewashed low-rise buildings) to preserve an identity despite the 3.5 million yearly visitors (for only 160000 inhabitants).
TAKE A STROLL IN A LAVA TUNNEL
To explore the island, we went on an organized bus tour. First, we stopped at Cueva de los Verdes and took a stroll in a lava tube. The tunnel was created when the top of the lava stream cooled and formed a solid crust, while the rest of the lava stream drained away. The lava tunnel extends for 6 kilometres above sea level and for another 1.5 kilometres below the sea. In about 20 spots, the roof of the tunnel collapsed, giving access to caverns known locally as a jameo.
At Jameos del Agua, CĂ©sar Manrique created a restaurant, museum, auditorium, gardens and pools wihtin the magnificient setting of the caves.
MIRADOR DEL RIO
At the north tip of Lanzarote, Mirador de Rio is a beautiful point of view toward La Graciosa, a well know achorage for sailboats (permit required).
WINE PRODUCTION
During the bus tour, we stopped in a bodega. Wine is growing in areas where a fertile soil was covered by a thick layer of lava ash and small fragments of lava (lapilli).
After digging a hole until the buried soil is found, the vine is planted with a deep root system. Frequently, the hole is accompanied by a rock structure that acts as a windbreaker to protect the plant.
MARTIAN LANDSCAPE
In contrast with other islands in the Canaries, Lanzarote lacks high mountains to capture the moist from the trade winds. Combined with little rainfall and constant dry winds, it is hard for vegetation to grow.
However, we found beauty in these bare volcanic landscapes, displaying colors of red, yellow and black, while visiting the Timanfaya national park.
UPWIND TO MADEIRA
To sail from Lanzarote to Madeira (290 nm, a little more than 2 days), we had to compose with the prevailing northerly winds. We waited for a period of moderate wind with an easterly component and were able to sail upwind most of the passage. All went well.
Next, we will stay in Madeira for a few weeks before sailing to Gibraltar.
10 replies on “Sailing upwind (Lanzarote to Madeira)”
Very nice!
Thank you. We hope you are enjoying your stay in the Med 🙂
Toujours un plaisir de vous lire.
Je suis très intéressé de comprendre :
1- Branchements provisoire de l’ordi portable de secours : « (alimentĂ© par l’onduleur, seul moyen d’utiliser l’Ă©nergie de la batterie) » ?
2- Quel était le problème et la solution sur Victron protect ?
Bon voyage
Sylvain
Bonjour Sylvain,
Nous déposons nos cartes électroniques sur 3 équipements indépendants : l’ordinateur de bord, le furuno au poste de barre et un ordinateur portable. Notre ordinateur de bord avait rendu l’âme durant un passage il y a deux ans. Avec l’aide de TEEM, nous avions alors fait une installation sur l’ordinateur portable afin de pouvoir l’utiliser comme alternative temporaire. Pour faciliter la manipulation de branchement et débranchement de câbles USB, Yan a ajouté un convertisseur Actisense NMEA2000 à USB. Nous l’utilisons soit pour monitorer le bus NMEA2000, soit comme ordinateur de secours.
Lorsque le battery protect a lâché, tous les équipements qui utilisent le 12V ne fonctionnaient plus. Par contre, Yan s’est rendu compte que l’onduleur (inverteur) était toujours capable d’utiliser l’énergie de nos batteries car il est branché directement sur les batteries et ne passe pas par le Battery Protect. Donc, nous avons pu brancher l’ordinateur portable avec son câble sur la prise AC 220V.
En parallèle, Yan avait réussi à faire fonctionner l’autopilote NKE qui contient également les indicateurs de vent et de positionnement et que nous pouvons connecter à l’ordinateur portable. Toutes les 2 minutes, on avait une alarme de sous tension sur le NKE. Mais la sous tension n’était heureusement pas suffisamment importante pour faire reseter le système.
En ce qui concerne le Victron Battery Protect, tu verras sur les notices d’utilisation qu’il est uni-directionnel. Il ne peut traiter le courant que dans un seul sens : soit le courant vers une charge, soit le courant depuis le chargeur, mais pas les deux en même temps. Quand nous avons finalement allumé le moteur à l’approche de Lanzarote, on s’est aperçu que tout s’est remis à fonctionner. Cela signifie que le moteur alimente le réseau 12V après de Battery Protect, et donc recharge les batteries au travers du Battery Protect avec un courant inverse au sens indiqué. Au fil du temps, c’est ce qui a causé la panne du Battery Protect.
Lorsque nous sommes arrivés à Lanzarote, nous avons remplacé le Battery Protect. Mais pour éviter que le problème ne se reproduise, il faut soit :
(1) changer les branchements du chargeur de batterie depuis l’alternateur, avec l’aide de TEEM. Ceci a un inconvénient, car le fait que le moteur alimente les équipements est intéressant; ou
(2) utiliser une version mécanique du Battery Protect, un relais électromécanique, qui n’est pas sensible au sens du courant. Nous avons utilisé un relais Victron Cyrix-Li 12/24V 230 A.
Il y a plusieurs avis à ce sujet et c’est à chacun d’évaluer ce qui lui convient le mieux.
Thanks for writing this up — really useful, and it may explain something we’ve been chasing on S/V Spindrift (BorĂ©al 56) too.
We had our own house bank failure this year — six batteries damaged beyond repair from a deep discharge while the boat was laid up unattended. TEEM traced the immediate cause, but we never got a clean answer on why our original Victron BatteryProtect itself had failed a few months earlier and needed replacing. Your explanation of the uni-directional issue — a charging source backfeeding it until it dies — is the first mechanism that’s actually made sense of it.
One thing I’m curious about: around the time our BatteryProtect failed, we had the generator running while the boat was also on shore power, with the Quattro charging. Could running a generator and shore power at the same time drive the same kind of reverse or excess current through the BatteryProtect that killed yours? Not sure if that combination applies to your setup, but curious if anyone following along has run into it.
Glad you’re back up and running — and good to know about the Cyrix-Li as an alternative. Might be worth considering for us too, given how long Spindrift sits unattended between seasons.
— Tony, S/V Spindrift
Hi Anthony,
We are sorry to hear about your battery bank. At the time when our Battery Protect failed, our motor was not running. Our hypothesis is that over time, the reverse current slowly damages the Battery Protect, by stressing the MosFETs which failed one after the other (in a large current device like that, several transistors are mounted in parallel) until at some point, the 12V system experienced a tension too low for operation.
We do not think that running the generator while the boat is on shore power is an issue. The reason is that both AC inlets are managed by the Quattro which is connected directly to the batteries, at least on Fabule, due to the large current consumed by the Quattro Inverter function at 3kW. The same connection is also used by the Charger function of the Quattro, which then does not charge the batterie through the Battery Protect.
Only when the engine was charging the batteries through the Buck-Boost, the current was fed through the Battery Protect in reverse to the batteries. This caused the failure of the Battery Protect on Fabule over time.
However, while the engine was running, it also fed the 12V system. Fortunately for us, as it allowed to dock with the bowthruster functioning and all the instruments. Thus this is a functionality that we really wanted to keep, now that we know about it. Hence, we replaced the Battery protect by the Cyrix. So far so good.
The difference between the Battery Protect and the Cyrix is the power consumption. The Battery Protect consumes almost nothing (4mA over 12-13V, thus about 0.1A Day drawn from the batteries), while the Cyrix drains a bit more (165 mA over 12-13V when ON, thus about 4A Day from the batteries), which is still very small compared to everything else that drains on the batteries.
Yan
Merci pour ces échanges et ces explications. Je ne suis pas assez compétent en électricité pour tout comprendre. J’aimerais vraiment avoir l’avis de Teem et de Brice sur ces problèmes avec Battery protect et les solutions. Vous avez des batteries gel ou lithium ?
GEL Batteries. I wrote an email to Brice about the issue. I will let you know if we get a response.
Ok. Thanks Anthony !
Effectivement, il est judicieux de faire tes propres validations. Dans notre cas, nous avons des bateries au lithium.