Christmas Came Early! Lithium Batteries from Delos (Calico Skies Sailing, Ep.69)

In this episode Bill is working on some rig upgrades since the mast is down – It had to be removed because a rod head popped when he was solo sailing Calico Skies offshore the east coast of the US, near Beaufort North Carolina. He begins by removing all ten rods which will be sent to the company that made the rod heads three and a half years ago when the rig was replaced around the time we set off to full time cruise. Upon inspection it is determined that two of the ten were formed improperly so those are replaced and we receive a warranty letter for the remaining rods. Meanwhile we’ve decided to replace the furler while the mast is down since it’s not robust enough to handle the ocean miles we’ve done, not to mention the ones we plan to do.

As it turns out, we’ve found ourselves with quite a bit of boat work to do in Annapolis, the big one being conversion to Lithium batteries. We hadn’t planned on it but a serendipitous offer came our way via our good friends Brian & Kazza of Delos. They were given new batteries to test out and generously decide to donate their current ones to us. As part of the installation process, Bill replaces the alternator belt because it can wear faster thanks to the higher charge acceptance rate of lithium batteries. He also installs a circuit protector because in the event that the BMS or Battery Management System will not accept charge when one of the parameters it regulates is reached (voltage, temperature and current discharge levels) the alternator could be damaged.

Now that we have the Lithium Batteries we couldn’t go back to our AGM batteries. They have a thirty percent faster charging rate which means way less time running the noisy generator PLUS we can run heavy duty appliances like the water heater, water maker and hair dryer off the battery bank. And not only is life more pleasant – but now we can live off the grid even longer than ever before. What a score!

0:00 Intro
0:41 Recap
1:22 Rig work; removing old furler, installing new low friction track, and removing rods for inspection
2:25 New to us Lithium batteries from Delos!
3:06 Removal of old batteries and installation of new ones
4:25 Lithium considerations, alternator
5:03 Lithium Battery Management System (BMS) explanation
7:09 Creating Battery Cables
9:49 Changing and programing our alternator’s external regulator to add alternator temp comp and belt load management
11:20 Fourth of July Celebrations 🇺🇸!
12:26 Technical details on Lithium Conversion (alternator settings, battery charger, and more solar!)
15:21 Details on rectifying the rigging failure

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