Yesterday I posted that I was getting ready to begin cruising again, but apparently that’s not going to be the case. I installed the new ammeter shunt, new ammeter and added new fuses where necessary and was waiting to find out if I have the right sized fuses to protect the circuits involved before I fired up the engine to test the alternator. I was sitting in the engine compartment and decided to turn on the alternator circuit breaker prior to starting the engine and KAPOW, very loud pop and some nice electrical smoke. The fuse between the alternator and voltage regulator blew. No Idea as yet why. So, another problem to deal with and most likely another new Balmar High Output Alternator. These are getting very costly. I think it might be that a diode in the alternator has fried and created a dead short / closed circuit situation, thus the reason for all the problems. We did take some salt water into the engine compartment through the ER vents during the gale on the way up. that’s when the alternator quit working. but I thought it was probably the burnt shunt. Well, more tests are necessary and of course more time spent waiting for parts etc. I’m really not good at the old hurry-up-and-wait game.

I’ll try to keep you all up to date as I attempt to get underway again.