Hello everybody,
Last Saturday, I took my first offshore fishing trip of the young season. I left the harbor at 4:30 AM, and pointed to the 182 high spot about 35 miles from Oceanside. I motored until about 11:30, and all ran fine. Nice constant temperature of 165, oil pressure of 35 after 6 hours... All is well, right? Well, I sailed for a while, and then the wind died down and I am still 20 miles offshore so I try to start the motor with the house battery that I had been running the stereo and autopilot on, like I always do, and no go. Switch to batt 1 and she fires right up. I motor for about 2 hours and then notice that all my motoring has left me a little gasoline challenged, so I shut her down and ride the tide for the last 10 miles or so. Get into the harbor, and no juice from batt 1 or 2! I was on batt 1 when I motored, and batt 2 when I sailed thinking I could save batt 1 for starting. Sailed into the slip with just a minor bump... My question is this, what could drain the battery while running? (In case you are curious, no fish, just one BIG biter, think it was a Mako because we we're trolling at about 6 knots and he broke off the 60 lb. almost immediately.) Thanks for any replies.
Last Saturday, I took my first offshore fishing trip of the young season. I left the harbor at 4:30 AM, and pointed to the 182 high spot about 35 miles from Oceanside. I motored until about 11:30, and all ran fine. Nice constant temperature of 165, oil pressure of 35 after 6 hours... All is well, right? Well, I sailed for a while, and then the wind died down and I am still 20 miles offshore so I try to start the motor with the house battery that I had been running the stereo and autopilot on, like I always do, and no go. Switch to batt 1 and she fires right up. I motor for about 2 hours and then notice that all my motoring has left me a little gasoline challenged, so I shut her down and ride the tide for the last 10 miles or so. Get into the harbor, and no juice from batt 1 or 2! I was on batt 1 when I motored, and batt 2 when I sailed thinking I could save batt 1 for starting. Sailed into the slip with just a minor bump... My question is this, what could drain the battery while running? (In case you are curious, no fish, just one BIG biter, think it was a Mako because we we're trolling at about 6 knots and he broke off the 60 lb. almost immediately.) Thanks for any replies.
Comment