Alternators and Other Woes

Well the storm was over and the deck was clean. It was now time to start the engine so we could recharge the batteries. Turned the engine on and no rpm's registering on the tachometer. This is usually an indication that the alternator belt has stretched or broken so Griff heads downstairs to check. The belt was tight and nothing was charging so we turned the engine off and started the AC generator to charge the batteries. Thank God we had bought that generator in Grenada last year.

Griff then started to trouble shoot. We checked voltages in the wiring, he pulled out the alternator and replaced it with our spare. The problem with that process was first he had to pull the alternators apart. When we had the alternator installed in BVI in February 2008 the electrician had removed the internal regulator and used an external regulator. Now Griff had to modify our back-up in the same way. Once he had that done he installed the back-up and started the engine. This time the tachometer was registering rpm's and the batteries were charging, but in less than a minute the smoke detector went off - the alternator was overheating and the batteries were overcharging. Back to square one.

Griff again pulled the alternators apart and reinstalled the back-up. Again things worked, but the system was overcharging. By this time it was supper time and Griff decided to sleep on the problem and try again in the morning.

Morning arrived and the problem hadn't changed. Griff phoned a fellow on St. Kitts who was listed in our Doyle's Guide as being able to help with yacht mechanical problems. David of Indigo Yachts told Griff that it would be best if we went to St. Kitts so he could have a look at things. He said it would be safe to run the engine with the field disconnected so that we could get movement from the engine, but would not do any charging. So we headed over to St. Kitts, a 11nm trip. Poor wind again so it was a good thing we did have the engine for power.

We decided to go into the marina in Basseterre to make it easier for David to access the boat. Now comes the Other Woes. The marina is only a few years old, but it is not really cruiser friendly. Most of the slips are taken up with either local fishing boats or local tour/sightseeing catamarans. They have short finger docks with pelican poles similar to the marina we stayed in in Trinidad, but the finger docks are much shorter. There were two men on the dock to assist and we felt everything would be good. However, that was not to be. I passed the bowline to the dock master and he wrapped it around the cleat at the end of the finger dock - about midships. Griff had stopped the boat's forward motion by briefly putting it in reverse. He then left the cockpit to get the stern line around the pelican pole. For some reason after I threw the second bowline to the second man on the dock the dock master moved the first bowline from midships to the bow. They both started pulling forward. Because Griff had not secured the pelican line yet Mystic Journey started moving forward. Before I could get into the cockpit and put her in reverse the bow made contact with the cement dock. OUCH!!!!! We now have a boo-boo on the prow of the boat. Another one of those things not planned for but requiring money to fix. Fortunately it is just cosmetic, not structural.

Back to the alternator. David came and looked at the alternators and Griff explained what was happening. He felt the alternators were probably okay, but he would access the company's website and try to find some schematics for us. He also said that we would be better off heading to St. Maarten because the testing equipment and technicians we would require would be best accessed there. We considered staying in St. Kitts for a couple of days to do a little bit on the island, but then decided we would head out the next day for St. Maarten, a 51nm trip.

Because we would need to charge batteries during the trip, Griff set up the AC generator on deck so we could use it for charging underway. Fortunately the seas are fairly low right now, although when Griff went to start the generator the starter cord failed and there he was at sea fixing the AC generator in the cockpit. It always amazes me how he takes things in stride and does what needs to be done.

We headed out to Major's Bay at the south end of St. Kitts for the night and left for St. Maarten at daybreak from there so we could go up the windward side of the island. Don't want to sound like "whine, whine, whine", but the winds were still low and from the rear so it was one of those find the wind if you can trips. That was the main reason we decided to stop at Isle Fourchou - which will be talked about in the next blog. (Griff here - Cheryl is a literal blog machine the last few days!!!!!)