Judy and I had our sailboat (previous to our Amel) based in the BVI for 5 years. This was before my full retirement and worked great for us. In that time I got to know the BVI and many of the fine people there, including some government officials. A few of these people are still close friends.

During that time I became aware that one of the world's most porous borders is between the BVI and the USVI. Many boats registered in the USVI would cross into the BVI daily carrying foreign charter customers for a day into the BVI with popular stops at Foxy's and the Bight. A significant number of those boats would not check in with customs and immigration. They flagrantly broke the law. The BVI has really never had sufficient Border Control Vessels so these violators got away with it.

The COVID pandemic has reached the BVI via foreign travelers to the BVI, causing death. The BVI does not have the resources to deal with this and they get almost zero outside help. The citizens of the BVI are outraged at the government's lack of control and almost all of these citizens are aware of the violators on boats from the USVI.

I assume that the BVI government is "sending a message." It is unfortunate that the frequent violators were not caught, but with limited border controls, the BVI caught the first violators they found. When governments anywhere prosecute a violator it is not uncommon that the underlying motivation is to send a message to all of the other violators.

For this reason, I will not send a letter, but respect the reasons that anyone else sends a letter. 

It is possible that the government will look at negative letters as a validation of their efforts.

Bill

	CW Bill Rouse Amel Owners Yacht School +1 832-380-4970 | brouse@... Address: 720 Winnie, Galveston Island, Texas 77550  Website: www.AmelOwnersYachtSchool.com

View My Training Calendar

I hear and read about so many cruisers with defective Firefly batteries. Its also clear that the manufacturer has usually replaced them under warranty after sending the customer through some testing hoops.

I have also heard the stories about previous production problems that are now 'fixed'. What evidence is there of this fix? Is there anyone on this forum that can report an incident-free experience with Firefly batteries for say two years or more? If not then I'd have to suggest that the jury is still out on reliability of Firefly batteries. 

it's good that the company has been honouring the warranty, but personally I'd prefer not to interrupt my cruising season trying to manage the logistics of getting specialist batteries replaced. 

I'm still considering my battery replacement technology.

Cheers, Dean
SV Stella A54-154

 

On Wed, 2 Dec 2020 at 5:17 pm, Dean Gillies

<stella@...> wrote:

I hear and read about so many cruisers with defective Firefly batteries. Its also clear that the manufacturer has usually replaced them under warranty after sending the customer through some testing hoops.

I have also heard the stories about previous production problems that are now 'fixed'. What evidence is there of this fix? Is there anyone on this forum that can report an incident-free experience with Firefly batteries for say two years or more? If not then I'd have to suggest that the jury is still out on reliability of Firefly batteries. 

it's good that the company has been honouring the warranty, but personally I'd prefer not to interrupt my cruising season trying to manage the logistics of getting specialist batteries replaced. 

I'm still considering my battery replacement technology.

Cheers, Dean
SV Stella A54-154

 

I have just learned of at least two cruising boats who were sttraying through BVI waters (with no intention of landing) who were stopped by BVI coast guard boats, escorted to a BVI port, and held in quarantine while charges were filed and $20,000 fines levied.  These boats were apparently detained until payment made. All in response to Covid laws prohibiting foreign vessels from entering.

I have written to the BVI to express my disgust at their draconian treatment of these people, the life's blood of the BVI.  I will not sail ir visit there again until and unless they apologize to those individuals and cruisers in general, the fines are rescinded, and their policy softened to allow for a simple warning for the first offense.

If you feel the same, I recommend that you let them know as well.

--
Kent & Iris

On Dec 1, 2020, at 13:32, eric freedman <kimberlite@...> wrote:



Hi Kent,

Would you please send me a copy of your letter and to whom it was addressed.

Fair Winds

Eric

Amel Super Maramu #376

 

 

From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io [mailto:main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io] On Behalf Of karkauai via groups.io
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2020 4:22 PM
To: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io
Subject: [AmelYachtOwners] BVI Fines for sailing I n BVI waters

 

I have just learned of at least two cruising boats who were sttraying through BVI waters (with no intention of landing) who were stopped by BVI coast guard boats, escorted to a BVI port, and held in quarantine while charges were filed and $20,000 fines levied.  These boats were apparently detained until payment made. All in response to Covid laws prohibiting foreign vessels from entering.

I have written to the BVI to express my disgust at their draconian treatment of these people, the life's blood of the BVI.  I will not sail ir visit there again until and unless they apologize to those individuals and cruisers in general, the fines are rescinded, and their policy softened to allow for a simple warning for the first offense.

If you feel the same, I recommend that you let them know as well.

--
Kent & Iris

KRISTY

SM243

Alex,

Yes, I am still a fan of Firefly batteries, but a caveat or two is worth mentioning.  Like any relationship, there has been a bump or two in the road.

Twice we have had a battery develop an internal short.  The first time we discovered it quickly, and it was immediately replaced by Firefly.  The second time, our monitoring system wasn't good enough to catch the issue, and we developed a chronic imbalance where half the bank was overcharged, and the rest undercharged.  By the time the issue was apparent, permanent damage was done to all the batteries.  Firefly stepped up an replaced the whole bank within the terms of the warrantee--keeping us happy.

We learned. It is quite likely that if we had seen the issue early on a minor change in charging procedure might have alleviated the issue, but we'll never know for sure. We have since significantly upgraded our electrical system monitoring system, and a minor imbalance is not going to sneak up on us again.

As for running A/C from the batteries, sure it's possible.  One of our A/C units draws about 850 watts when running. That's about 4 times our normal house load.  That is easily supplied by our 8 battery bank and 3kW inverter. In the absence of any solar power, we'd need to run the generator twice a day for 3 hours instead of once a day for 90 minutes.    It is important to remember that it doesn't matter what kind of batteries you have or the size of the bank.  Batteries do not make power they just store it.  A bigger bank means you can reduce the number of times you start the generator, but your total run time will be about the same.

All that said, in 5 years of full time cruising we have run the A/C units while away from shore power exactly once, so it was not a priority in our design decisions.  If your plan is to run A/C units regularly off the grid, a larger system than we have might be needed.

Bill Kinney
SM160, Harmonie
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA