What now! The Battery Charger!

Every day we are learning something new. When you own and operate a boat, there is always a problem looming and you had better be able to diagnose and fix it yourself - based on your location. Not to mention the expense! Big problem! The Battery Charger stopped working and it is vital to our survival on the boat. It charges the generator battery, house battery and the engine batteries. After a whole morning of investigation, Jim and Pete, from Blue Yonder, isolated all possibilities and it became obvious it was the (new) battery charger.

In August when in Holland, we made sure all systems were up to date and operational. We ordered and installed a new ice maker (important!), new battery charger (ok, that is important too) and we repaired the connection to the radar (yes, most important!).

Pete has a lot of experience on boats. He worked in a boat yard and is just one innately handy guy. He has taught us a whole lot about boats. He and Jim discussed the problem and Pete got on the phone to the manufacturer. The techie talked to Pete and they decided the mother board was fried from a power surge. No option but to replace the mother board. Good news was it was under warranty. Bad news was we had to remove it and send it to the manufacturer and they would try (love that word) to get it back to us in a week. Since we are in port in Marathon, at least this was a possibility.

Pete and Jim removed the Battery Charger and marked all the connections. Fortunately Pete is really good at electrical connections. He has only received one shock while on Crawdad (sorry Pete)! We packed up the BC and carried it on our bicycles to the Post Office to send it on. In the mail. Grateful for Pete's help and Anna's patience!

Without the charger, the batteries drain in a very short time. Since we are not traveling and the batteries are not charged by the engines, we needed to find another source, so we now are the proud owners of (another) auto battery charger. Jim hooked up the BC and off we went. He spent quite a lot of time in the engine room while the BC was being repaired, moving the charger from battery to battery, but in the end all is well. Jim installed (with Pete watching from the lounge chair above) the BC in about 30 minutes. I am impressed!