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Larry's LogUntil Mima left, I didn't do a lot of work on the boat although I did finally install a new rope clutch for the reefing lines that I had been carrying since we started the trip. There was no good way to hold the lines except by a stopper in the boom near the gooseneck (where the mast connects to the boom) and the lines were lead back to the cockpit to a small winch there. Previously I would have to either just release the first reef line to tighten the second or go up to the mast twice to put in the 2nd reef, the first time to bring down the main and hook the D ring for the tack then go back to the cockpit to pull in the reef line to the 2nd cringle and then back to the mast to use the stopper. This replaced that gooseneck stopper with one in the cockpit itself. It was Sunday the 3rd when Tom and Steph left the marina to go to Ste. Anne. They planned to be there overnight and then leave early the next day for either St. Thomas or St. Croix, depending on the weather. We helped them get off the dock since there was a cross wind and wished them a safe passage - we would miss them. The next day, the winds were finally coming down and Mima left as planned. We spoke to them on the VHF radio as they were passing Diamond Rock and they said that, so far, everything was fine. We wished them a safe trip again and said we would talk to them again via the SSB at 6pm that night. We did that for the next 2 days until they got safely into St. Thomas. The only thing I did that day was go to the Internet place to check on my other email accounts, look up our finances and check on the web sites for Ample Power, the company that made my voltage regulator, and Yamaha engines. We were thinking about buying a Yamaha 15 outboard since we found out Lady J bought one at a very good price here in Martinique. The day after they left Ste. Anne, I tested the alternator/regulator combination. Although I knew the alternator was OK, I also knew that the regulator needed adjustment. I had stopped charging the batteries the day before so that the alternator would be given a workout during the test. When I started, I first noticed that the voltage was not going up very far, so I though it needed to be adjusted first. So, with the engine running (it had to be to make the adjustment), I leaned over the engine to reach the regulator with a flashlight and a small screwdriver to turn the tiny recessed screw that was supposed to adjust the voltage. Doing that several times though, I saw no difference in the voltage to the batteries. I decided to call Jack back in the States and ask the question directly instead of waiting for email back and forth. The call required that we get to the phone about one-quarter mile away. Still, calling from Martinique was relatively easy since the French Telecom was reasonably priced and fairly reliable. Diane came with me since she knew how to use the card (it required several sequences of numbers and you had to press the asterisk or number sign several times at the right point. Steph, who spoke some French, had helped Diane with instructions the last time we were in Martinique. We finally got through and I spoke to Jack and he gave me some things to try. I also decided to call Ample Power, who made the regulator. Back at the boat, I tried them but the adjustment didn't seem to work. A green LED was supposed to come on but never seemed to be right. So we went to the Internet place to look up their phone number on the web site and found out that they were located in Washington State. We would have to wait a bit before calling due to the time difference. So we went back to the boat, had lunch and I went back to call. After describing the problem, one of the technicians said to adjust the unit using a different method. It sounded worth trying. So I went back and gave it a shot. Although his suggestion didn't require running the engine, it did mean taking the cover off the regulator since I needed to adjust the voltage found on a certain pin on the main processor chip on the circuit board. He described where the chip was and which pin to test so I figured it was worth trying. At least I didn't have to worry about falling on a hot engine or getting caught in a spinning alternator belt. So, after struggling to remove the cover (leaning on the still hot engine), I found the chip and figured out which pin to test. Getting out my meter and connecting it was a bit of a challenge but that done, I could see that the adjustment was finally working, at least at the pin I was testing. So after the adjustment was made, I left the cover off, disconnected the wires to the regulator for the electrical monitor and the temperature sensor (Jack said that this would eliminate some of the variables) and ran the engine again to watch how the regulator and alternator performed. It seemed to be OK. The voltage climbed as it should to the right 14.2 volts and the amps produced were up to almost 70 at one point. I let the engine run for a little over an hour to go through the full charging cycle, closely monitoring it. Then I saw the red error light start to flash on the regulator and the volts dropped, as did the amps. It was flashing that the field on the alternator wouldn't turn on, while it was also flashing the green LED that it was in the absorption phase of charging. This condition only lasted about a minute though and then the red LED went off and the voltage went back up, as did the amps. Stopping the engine, I decided to send Jack and Ample Power an email. It was too late in the day to call Jack and I was really too tired anyway. The next day, I decided to call Jack via telephone to see what he thought. He said that they had seen this happen a few times before and it had been traced to a problem with the either the ignition wire, the ignition switch or the ground wire to the regulator. He suggested a test to try (basically bypassing the ignition switch and ground with jumper wires) and the regulator worked well. It appeared to be a problem with an intermittent voltage drop through the ignition switch. At that point, I removed the switch panel and took it to the various chandleries in Marin. No luck. None of them had anything even remotely like it, so I replaced the preheat switch, that didn't look to good either, and then cleaned the ignition switch as well as possible and sprayed it with WD40, hoping that the oil would loosen any internal corrosion enough to make the contacts inside work better. I reconnected everything but changed out the old ignition wire and cleaned all the contacts of the other wires leading to the switch and the regulator. Everything seemed to work OK after I tried running the engine again for about an hour. Unfortunately, as I write this in the Ste. Anne anchorage, I know it wasn't, but I am getting ahead of the story. Fixing(?) the regulator was the last task that really was keeping us in the marina, but since we had already paid for the month, I decided to continue with some of the maintenance chores that are easier to do while at the dock. So the next few days were really busy with those. I took apart, cleaned and regreased the windlass, changed the primary and secondary fuel filters, changed the transmission fluid, cleaned the raw water filter and equalized the batteries again. I also cleaned the bilge below the companionway steps and in the engine compartment, checked all the hoses and hose clamps on the engine and several other little things. I felt were really set, as far as maintenance on the boat. Diane meanwhile had done several loads of hand laundry, and cleaned and waxed the deck and stainless steel. We even took down the dodger to do the frame. We also took the dinghy on the dock and cleaned it and treated it with 303 Protectant. We used that to save the dinghy material, hypalon, from the typical fate of dinghies left in the tropical sun. |