A step backwards

Saturday 3/6/10

Last night I decided to run the port engine to make sure the freezer kept all our fish frozen, and the port engine would not start. The battery would not turn it over. Tried again in the morning, but still nothing. Checked all over for a bridge to the other batteries, but there was no way to connect them. Next step was to make sure that the starboard engine would run. Good news, it does, but bad news, after checking everything closely it is not charging the house batteries. To save the food, I moved the stbd battery over to the port side and started the engine. Close check of the voltage shows that its not charging either. I knew it was low yesterday, but chalked it up to the dry/dead battery. Now we appear to have problems with both charging systems. It doesn’t seem possible that both alternators went out at the same time, but they are not charging.

Had to call David, who was planning on getting a new battery any way, so now he’s getting an alternator as well. The only problem is that we have to sail back to Trellis Bay on Tortola so he can work on it. Of course its raining today, so we are going to get a little wet, but no big deal.

Now we are at Trellis Bay. David is still working on installing the new alternator. The first one didn’t fit, he got another one, and now several drill bits and files later he is still working. Not looking good, its almost 6 and will be dark soon. The house batteries are at about 60%, and of course there has been no sun to charge from the solar panels. Hopefully we don’t end up stuck in Trellis Bay for another day. Oh well, there are worse places to be.

On the bright side, we did have a nice sail back, and have spotted a large sea turtle cruising around here in the bay, as well as a big (4-5’) barracuda circling under the back of the boat.