It's a Boat

Wednesday, 12/24/14
Little river, SC

It rained today.  It poured today. The sun peaked out just enough to get you to do something and then it dumps on you. but it got up to 70 degrees.

We took more supplies to the boat today and it decided to rain again just as we were loading things on the boat.  While we were listing everything so we would know what we have, I absently checked the batteries condition.  They were depleted about half.  That is not good.

I checked the battery charger and it was not working.  After looking around Lynda discovered a breaker that was blown.  I reset it and in just a little while it blew again.  Again I reset it and that time it seemed to hold.  But in the mean time to help recharge the batteries I decided to run the engine for a while.  Guess what.  It wouldn't start.  It didn't even try to turn over.

I consulted Mark, who is in Puerto Rico.  We discussed various possibilities.  After checking what I knew about I gave up and called the sailing communities main sailboat technician.  He came over and we started chasing the problem.  A short across the solenoid (Siri called it a "cell annoyed") started the motor.  So the motor, starter and solenoid are all good.  We checked the wiring at the start switch and determined there was a problem there, eventually deciding it was a wire running from the switch to the solenoid.  We needed a wire to run in place of the bad one.  So, it was off to West Marine.  When we ran the wire from the start switch to the "cell annoyed" the motor started just fine.  So, we will have to snake the new wire through the boat where the old one goes.

That will wait until tomorrow or Friday.  Meanwhile, because of the problem with the battery charger, and being unsure of it, Lynda took all the meat from the freezer back to the condo just to be sure.  When she got back with the sky opened and drowned her while she unloaded.  Not a dry stitch, she said.  She stopped at the boarding kennel to check on friend Terri Azar's puppies. Who were happy to see her but seemed to be doing fine.

Oh, well.  We will get it all sorted out.  After all, it's a boat.  Something will always go wrong.  They say the definition of cruising is repairing your boat in exotic places. On the up side, the manager at the grocery store gave Lynda a poinsettia for free and West Marine game me a bag of scrap wires of various sizes, so it wasn't all trouble.