Back to Cadlao

8. November 2020, Sunday
11° 7' 51" N, 119° 19' 55" E


Well, lucky again.
The Typhoons have passed and before the next storms develop, we want to use the wind to sail back to Cadlao and El Nido.
The weather forecast is good, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing at 20 knots from the right direction to bring us to our destination.
Anchor up and go!

However, as is so often the case here, the weather report was not reliable and so our wind died almost immediately after we had set sail. Another cyclone that forms further in the east deprives it of its power and so we motor for hours through the wonderful and tourist-free island world of Palawan. (Did I already mention that Corona also has its positive sides for us;)

When we anchored off Cadlao island, not only did the wind settle, but the sun also disappeared and now a lot of rain awaits us in the next few days due to 3 tropical storms here in the Chinese Sea.
Now that the solar panels are not producing any additional energy without the sun, we have to state that our 500Ah battery bank, which is just over 3 years old, is showing the first signs of age.
Damn!
Here of all places! #
AGM batteries are supposed to work for up to 7 or 8 years, but this is just a pious wish that is unrealistic and for cruise ships that draw huge amounts of electricity from the batteries for refrigerators, lighting, computers, TVs, water pumps, autopilot, navigation and other consumers every day, almost no possibility to recharge the batteries to 100% with shore power every time illusory! Well ... just by the way. Lithium batteries would be a better solution to this problem, but the price for these things is still a bit shocking at the moment. Also to get such high tech things here in Palawan ..

But all of this is a topic for one of our next log entries.