Monday 22 August A marathon of amp hours and deep cycles

Nothing to do with laundry, deep cycle as in marine grade house batteries for keeping the fridge and freezer running. A young German guy called (little) Martin introduced us to local (big) Martin who knows a business that imports Panasonic batteries. Big Martin drove us out to their warehouse where they showed us 70Ah truck batteries. The price is right and they're in stock. This could be a goer.


Back at the yacht club we wandered into the Yamaha dealer who is also an agent for the local manufacturer Pacific Batteries. David was asking many technical questions so assistant Jacob phoned the marketing manager at Pacific for David to ask directly. The upshot was, yes they do do a real marine deep cycle battery and would we like to visit the factory to talk about our requirements in detail and for a tour? They'd even send a car to collect us. This wasn't an opportunity to be missed.

The factory is at Lami, about 4 miles from the yacht club. Amrit the marketing manager welcomed us and had invited the production manager, Talu to join. He had all the samples laid out, samples of sizes and the different thickness plates that are the essential difference between starter and deep cycle. We were so impressed we've ordered 8 x 110Ah units and as we've seen what goes in, satisfied it should meet our requirements. Of course, if we were in NZ there would have been more than one choice and a range of prices though price we've agreed is fair. They'll take 2 days to make and 3 days for a slow trickle charge before they are ready to be delivered next Monday and take away our old ones.

The factory recycles old batteries, taking all their lead requirements from them and shredding the plastic cases which are exported to China and come back as new cases. We were joined on our factory tour by the company MD, Mr Dupay, and saw all the stages including a machine that produces de-ionised water. We're being given a 25L jug of this water for maintenance. Apparently water evaporates faster in tropical climates. The tour finished with coffee and a masterclass from the MD and production manager in how to care for batteries. With the right care they should last 5 years. On that point only time will tell.

I crumpled onto Jackster's deck at 5pm after a solid 8 hours of battery hunting desperately in need of a pick-me-up tonic, gin and tonic, and a medal for endurance.