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Larry's LogThat night we went to bed around 8:30 but we woke up a bit before midnight from all the noise from the beach. Actually, we then saw a pretty good fireworks display from the Caritan Hotel, which was where the beach potluck had been and some fireworks from the Club Med near Ste. Anne. New Year's Day was quiet. I had gotten a sore throat and so stayed on the boat while Diane went for a walk. Steve and Connie came by and we had dinner with them and Michael came over later. Steve and I discussed the charging problem a bit more but really just talked about future cruising plans. Of course, cruising plans, as we often say, are carved in Jello, but we talked about different plans and what's in the different places. Basically just a pleasant, quiet day. I was still confused about the problems with the alternator and the charging system in general, but I did know that the solar panels and wind generator were working well. I tried adjusting some things on the regulator but it didn't help. We had Voytek and Pauline from Syrena over that evening for cocktails and we had a very nice visit. We had met them in Trinidad and they were nice enough to be one of our sponsors for SSCA Commodore status. They were Commodores themselves, having almost completed a circumnavigation and we talked about lots of things, from the places in the South Pacific they saw to French wine and Polish food. Pauline had given Diane a Polish cookbook that she had compiled from Voytek's Mother. Diane is part Polish (her mother) and she was thrilled to get some recipes that were familiar from her childhood. Pauline also gave a copy to Diane for her mother, that we had sent home with some other cruisers; they would mail it for us. The rest of the week I worked on the charging problem, intermittently. I also took off the staysail chainplate that we discovered had started to leak again. Unfortunately, I couldn't complete the repair since it was raining on and off the entire week. I did dig out the wet core and luckily it wasn't wet too far out from the hole. I would put epoxy in place once the weather settled and then install the chainplate again. The charging problem continued to occupy me. Twice that week, Diane went into shore, once to play bocce ball and once to see a DVD movie at a local restaurant while I stayed and charged the batteries and monitored the process. Things just weren't right. I wrote several emails to the place I had bought much of my electrical gear to see if they could tell me what was wrong. While waiting for a response, I read the documentation but there were things left out, like how to adjust the absorption voltage. The manual pointed out where to adjust it, but the procedure was missing some information. Friday though, I finally did get off the boat and talk a walk to the Caritan Hotel with Steve and Connie. It was a good way to stop thinking about some of the problems. We had lunch at the little boulangerie (bakery) in town and then went back to the boat. Over the weekend, we had Jeff and Vickie, from Esther N, over on Saturday evening for drinks. They had also sponsored us for Commodore status and were very nice people. We talked about their visit to Venezuela and a little about the charging problem. Jeff said he would try to contact someone he knew who was good with alternators. We also talked about how they traded their prior boat, a Hans Christian 38 (a very traditional boat with lots of teak), for a Lagoon 42 catamaran. I was very interested because from being in the Caribbean now for a year, we had seen many cruising "cats" and had been aboard a few. The space and stability of the boats were impressive. Of course, there are more mechanical issues, like two engines, but they seemed to sail pretty well. We talked about his experience sailing upwind, multi-hulls' traditional weak point of sail, and Jeff said he could point to about 45 degrees off the wind - not as good as a fast monohull, but not too bad. Of course, the space available was VERY nice. Tradeoffs, as usual. Sunday I worked on the boat, trying to fix the staysail chainplate but, of course, it started to rain so I had to stop. I worked on the logs for a bit and then while Diane went in to a local restaurant to watch a movie with some other cruisers, I charged the batteries and monitored the progress. It still wasn't working too well so we definitely had to go into the marina to get it fixed. I didn't want the batteries to be permanently damaged by this constant undercharging. The next day, we radioed the marina to verify our reservation and I cleaned the bottom and anchor chain from 3 weeks growth. The chain was really bad and required a lot of scrubbing. I would take a breath and pull myself down the chain to clean the lower parts. I also swam along to see the full length and see where the anchor wound up. Interestingly, the anchor was completely buried in the sand but the middle of the chain had somehow gotten in between two rocks. That's what we could hear/feel as the wind blew from the northeast, that is, the chain rubbing between these rocks. There was no damage, except for perhaps some galvanizing being lost at that point. The chain was still in very good condition. Tuesday we took down the awning and got ready to motor into the marina. We were underway at about 10am but when we called the marina, they said we would have to wait until 11 or 12 for a slip to become available. Since it would take 30-40 minutes to anchor and then pick up the hook again, we just motored around a bit. But when we called again at 11:30, they now said they wouldn't have one until 4pm. OK, so we finally anchored but then we went into the marina office to CONFIRM what we were just told. Diane went to the marina office with another cruiser who spoke French so there wouldn't be any more misunderstandings. She met Eric, the marina manager, who spoke English, and he said to check with him again 2. After some confusion, they said they had a slip now but there wasn't a 110v outlet for us (they needed to bring a transformer to the dock where American boats tie up). Since that was our main purpose in going into the marina, to plug in and charge the batteries, we said we would wait until they had a slip with "American" electricity. Eric promised us that one would available for tomorrow. We thanked him and walked around the town a bit. We went to an internet place we remembered from May, and the same very nice girl was still there. We checked email and the web sites for our financial information, and then checked some sites for information on the AGM batteries I have. We stopped by the marina office again and were glad we did. The manager said he had been trying to call us because a slip had become available that afternoon, with 110 volts dockside (the French islands, actually most of the world, are 220 volts). So we headed back to the boat and raised the hook, cleaning the anchor chain of the tenacious mud, and started into the marina. The chase boat met us and guided us to our med moor slip. Unfortunately, it was all the way at the other end of the marina and was about a 7-minute walk to the main complex. It was a tight fit but we got in, although there was some concern once the crosswind started. But, we got tied up OK with a dockhand helping and the guy in the chase boat tying the stern line to the mooring ball. We plugged in and I thankfully saw the inverter start to charge the batteries at the proper voltage and amperage. Now all we had to do was get the alternator charging system fixed. That night was a bit warm as the breeze blew across the boat and not down the hatches, but with the fans on, it wasn't too bad. The next day, I went to the marina office to check in and then to the electrical shop to see when they could come to the boat and check out the system. Although the manager said he had someone out sick and someone else working on a big project, he said he would call someone that was good and see if he would work. Luckily, Bernard said he would come in and he was there within 15 minutes. He had actually been working already, just back from a vacation. We spoke and he said he would be at the boat at 1:30. Excellent, as it was just 11:30 as we spoke. After lunch, Bernard came by at 1:40 and looked at the unit and did some tests. He thought it wasn't working at all, but I explained what the problem was again and he saw it was working a little. He said it might be a number of things but most probably the internal diodes. Steve had suggested that this might be the problem as well. So he took it back to the shop to look inside. He called on the VHF about 2 hours later and confirmed that it was the diodes and that he needed some more information to see if he could get the parts. I brought the spec sheet and we spoke at his shop. He showed me what had happened. Actually, the diodes were ok, but the connections to the field and stator were really bad and one had broken. He showed me the broken piece of wire and I saw that it hadn't been repaired too well, probably from when it was done in Guadeloupe. I asked if the unit would be good if we did fix it and he said that it was still basically OK, it just needed to be repaired correctly. I felt that he was right after he showed me the insides and exactly what was wrong. Jean-Louis, the shop manager, needed to try to find the parts however, as they were unavailable locally. He tried calling several places but either got no answer or an answering machine. He said he would continue trying and I said I would wait at the boat, monitoring channel 16 on the VHF. After not hearing from him that afternoon, we went over the next day. Happily, he had found where to get the replacement diodes and could order them that day. He was waiting for us to give him the OK. We asked what the total costs would be and it sounded reasonable so we said to go ahead. We had discussed it already and decided that if this was repairable, that we would fix it and buy a new one later anyway and keep this as a spare. |