Stephen Welsh (+1-473-406-1800), the electrician we had requested to come to our boat, arrived this morning armed with his case of meters, monitors and tools. His mission was to track down the sources of our electrical issues. When he arrived, he sat down with Mary Margaret and me and listened to our history of recent issues and our thoughts of what the sources were. We basically told him we thought we had a failing battery charger which was putting out a poor imitation of a rectified sine wave, a bad starter battery and a battery isolator with failed diodes.

Armed with this information, he started his analysis by testing our various systems. It took three hours but he concluded that our port side starter battery had failed which also drained the starboard side starter battery. They were linked while we gone so both could be on a float charging status while we were gone to the US. Also, his testing showed that while the starboard battery was still working, it had been damaged by the draw down caused by the port side starter battery and it also should be replaced.

He also concurred with our analysis of the battery charger and recommended that it should be replaced. With his recommendation, he suggested a person we should contact if we wanted to replace it while we are in Grenada. I had been trying to order a new one in Trinidad so it would be there upon our arrival but after 4 weeks of trying using emails and phone calls, I have decided that we will just order it here and be done with it. It may take a few weeks for it to arrive.

Stephen also concurred with our supposition on the bad battery isolator on the starboard of the boat. This unit distributes the current generated by the starboard engine’s alternator and directs it to both the starter battery on that side of the boat and to the house batteries. We have been having a significantly reduced current output from the starboard alternator when compared to the port engine alternator. The blown diodes in the starboard isolator were the reason. Fortunately, I had a spare isolator on board so by the time Stephen was through, it was up and working and the starboard alternator was putting out its normal amount of current. Yea!

The cost of Stephen’s efforts: $180 US. The result: peace of mind knowing that we will be right as rain once we replace the two starter batteries and the new battery charger is installed.

Tomorrow, I will take the dinghy over to the Budget Marine chandlery on the other side of the bay to buy two new starter batteries. Then I can start making new arraignments to replace the head sail furling systems.