On the fourth day of Christmas, my channel gave to thee, a special Christmas sailing movie! Changing batteries on my starting bank, sailing over the Christma...

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magic

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so I came home and the hour was out at

the club my dish is a beautiful Moony

night and why not but the problem with

that is that there's some reason my

batteries were drained right now they're

charging I'm using the engine to

recharge them that way tomorrow morning

at least I know that they'll be good to

go but it is a little bit worrisome that

they only lasted one day without power

because normally I take good care of

them so I'll have to check that out this

weekend and make sure that the levels

are okay

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so there was power outage at the club

the other day and happened during that

outage said I noticed that the batteries

reading at 25 instead of where they

should be right now there it's 75% just

still low so what I'm gonna do is I'm

going to take them to West Marine and

have them looked at professionally

because they have the awesome

measurement devices there so more

specifically I'm gonna be looking at

battery bank number two these are the

two starting batteries and you might

notice that they are not the same kind

and not the same age not supposed to do

that

I got cheap when I bought the new one

and if I had might be the source of the

odd power levels so I'm gonna check that

out alright so I'm gonna take off the

battery leads here you'll notice I'm

wearing a rubber glove and also using a

rubber handle wrench to do this part my

batteries and I also don't want to

accidentally come in contact with any

battery acid that stuff is dangerous

so I've set everything aside out of the

way make sure that very turned off the

circuitry for everything so there's

nothing actually connected at the moment

on the direct current side

the alternating current I still have

that running but I still like to have a

little bit of air conditioning go

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pull it out back

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one thing I like to do is a little bit

tape around we'd go together that way I

know when I come back my coat

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so before I take these to the store I'm

going to check the fluid levels in each

of the cells

it looks pretty okay in all of them but

could probably use a little bit more

fluid there are other tests I can do

before I take it and I think I have the

right tool for it but we're gonna check

on that it is a three days before

Christmas I'm wearing shorts god bless

Texas in the car I'm just gonna take

them to West Marine have them checked

out for free they are heavy yeah a

little bit out of breath from that but I

know they're in the car

hopefully I don't have to buy new ones

because they are expensive and they

don't really taste good so I don't

recommend eating them because they don't

taste good but I guess you know gotta

buy with boat anything for the boat

placed the older battery with a new one

that way they both have the matching

average rating the amperage rating is

actually what is important for these

kinds of batteries especially since this

is the battery bank that starts the

engine now I don't have to rely on the

house batteries as a backup I can rely

on just the starting bank which is how

it should be all right now it's time for

the sailing anticipation trivia quiz

get out your electrical engineering

books and follow along kids

these batteries are in parallel or in

series doo doo doo doo doo that's right

they are in parallel you always want to

put your stacked battery bank in

parallel and make sure that you double

and triple-check because that could lead

to a lot of bad problems if you don't

now that I have the battery bank

installed I'm gonna do what I do every

episode crank the

that didn't work sorry now I added

drawing only from the batteries that we

just put in since they're not fully

charged that might be why it's not doing

that so I'm gonna go ahead and swap it

to both you never want us to lop it

while the engine is running always

making sure your engine is off that can

destroy your alternator although some do

have a protection system for that now

that we are drawing from both battery

banks let's try it again

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took a couple extra cranks but we're up

and running yep up and running after

starting a battery they're starting an

engine like that I like to keep the

engine running for a little bit make

sure that the batteries get recharged

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it is Sunday my jeans and it is gorgeous

out I'm stuck inside getting my work

done fuel pump pumping tank that way you

finish my work which family is on

Facebook right now I will go out and

enjoy this get it out for a little

Christmas sailing home that's lovely

Christmas Eve Eve afternoon fly around

really not a lot of people taking

advantage of the weather it's kind of

sad got that light weather out feeling

whether I had right now

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that light wind we're going almost four

knots that bad it's casual it's

Christmas not in a hurry

yet this point we're pushing four and a

half knots tide is out lower than it

normally is we're actually at the lowest

low as for the chart so I'm watching my

death constantly to make sure that

there's no shallows logs that developed

someone at the club mentioned they saw a

5.2 feet push it I don't want to run

aground one day before Christmas this is

not how I plan on holiday

right now

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all right so about 200 yards up ahead

there's a drastic change in color water

I think that is a tide line which I've

not seen in this Bay but popular for

fish according to the birds there are a

lot of seagulls hanging out around it

let's see what happens when we get to it

you see that drastic change a lot better

now it almost looks like there's

something floating in the water that

might be the case it might be just that

a fishing vessel over there dragging up

there making a mess behind him but looks

kind of cool

to enter into it

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let's see what we get

water depth right now is showing ten

feet let's say there's a changing depth

as well associated with this

still 10 feet it's just a weird color

change decided to head back towards my

side of the day just because I don't

want to be too far away from home when

it gets dark out the wind direction is

could be a lot of tacking to get back

over there so might as well start that

now and hang out where we're close to

home got about four knots into the land

pretty good myself baby

do they know for knots I'm on stuff just

kidding we're gone handed head right now

hey we may be back safe and sound so far

now we get to dock and there's a very

strong current coming into the entrance

right there

it's kind of creating some weird loops

here in the harbor but not a lot of wind

that'll make docking really easy today

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well good-bye PAC when you need to blow

dry your hair but you don't have a blow

dryer all you have to do is walk outside

let the wind do it for you nice and dry

another life hack when you're feeling

cold you just put on a jacket won't be

so cold

it's Christmas Eve and it is 60 out good

breeze so I'm gonna go sailing and we're

off for some Christmas Eve sailing

Kentucky's Merry Christmas Merry

Christmas I don't think they can hear me

Merry Christmas we've got a wind coming

out of the South today and it's supposed

to stay like that all afternoon that's

good because here on the map let me show

you that'll blow the water in into the

bay and Whateley the waters been really

low so having that little extra push

from the wind will actually help a lot

and making sure that we don't

accidentally run aground

yesterday I was worried about that but I

think today we've got a lot more water

in the bay than we did so we'll be fine

yesterday the depth was around 8 feet

out here today we're showing 9

got about an extra foot water out here

on Galveston Bay failed percent close

reach going about five knots

yesterday is technically light wind a

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perfect trim say hello to the dredging

to the edges that's pretty cool

operation that got going on here the

channel got a little bit chilly out get

my hands on that's across that tide line

that we cross yesterday again kind of

try to go as far south as I can before

got four o'clock four o'clock I think

around the church

Trinity Church is ethics

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the channel arts be farthest that I've

ever taken my boat and this is

unfortunately as far as I'm going to go

today as I see an oyster farm of the

head marked out by PVC piping with the

wind direction so if you made your own

background yeah I had slept in this

morning I probably could have made it a

lot further and one of these days I'll

actually make it out of a day and yeah

we're only about halfway it's got a long

way to go before I can get it to be

useful

yeah now I've had it with the way headed

back home a lot quieter out when you're

headed with the wind you're not

constantly hearing the roar that

apparent wind but should be back a

couple hours we're doing five dots right

now

that feels pretty good I shouldn't have

to drive or anything like that I should

be able to make it home on this tack so

okay so like I said today was the

furthest I've taken my boat out away

from the club that is and a single

direction I just checked the chart and

seven miles out nautical miles that is

away from home it doesn't sound like a

lot but when you're sailing at five

knots and upwind most of the way that's

pretty pretty good especially for a

three-hour tour total it'll probably be

five or six hours from the time I left

to when I get back but not bad not bad

at all

but in the autopilot steer for a bit see

how it does usually you need a little

bit of speed for it to keep up and going

five knots it should have enough to keep

up with what we're trying to do feature

on my Garmin is it actually has a sonar

lot I think the intention for that is

fishing but even if you're not fishing

it's kind of neat to see what the bottom

of the Bay or whatever you're floating

in looks like staying on course so I'm

gonna make a almond butter and jelly

sandwich help pass the time and quench

my thirst for food I believe that's

called hunger yeah excited so that cargo

ship is heading right towards us and

we're only about a thousand feet away

from the ship channel over there you see

a channel marker right there

so we're gonna get a full-blow of its

wake

I'm excited to write that out

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thinks this is a norwegian company MSC

they will be traveling for several

months though which is kind of cool but

think about honestly it would be a fun

job to have traveling around the world

on a ginormous ship but I don't have

that job I have the other one the one

that I was given

okay now you can really see the week

coming off the turn to that ship

it is massive that is like a five foot

wave that's probably an exaggeration

it's actually probably closer to like a

few feet but we're gonna hit that

head-on

oh man that was scary those were a lot

bigger than I thought they would pee oh

man I'm glad that I hit that head-on

though I had adjusted my course so that

I wouldn't be taking that at an angle

because oh my gosh that would have that

would have sucked okay but the boat held

up I don't think anything broke so we're

good to go I hate these so much there

are little crab traps that somebody

keeps dropping out here and they're hard

to see first of all and then a second of

all if you hit them they're probably

gonna get drugged along with you and tie

up your propeller and they're all over

the place not really all over the place

but they're usually in the most

inconvenient places like where I'm

trying to sail

say whenever I'm trying to sail I mean

where the autopilot is try sail and as

I'm just along for the ride

enjoying these awesome views

back then that was a fun day fun way to

spend a Christmas Eve couldn't imagine

any other way of spending it other than

maybe at home with family and friends

but this is fun too home is where the

slip of these are and it's also dead

ahead

at home on apiece it's fixed and it's

only for 47 that means I have an hour to

shower get ready and enjoy the Christmas

season merry Christmas everyone thank

you for watching I'll probably post some

more videos later on next year but for

now I will see you in 2019

Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry

Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas

we wish you a Merry Christmas

we wish Christmas maggots

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yeah