Year 9 Day 167 A Birthday Comes Early
15 July 2016 | Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
Dave/ Periods of Rain And Sun
Today was Mary Margaret’s day for the spa. Her birthday is just a couple of days away and this is my birthday present to her. She loves messages and what better of a present could I give her? We will celebrate her actual birthday with a nice dinner so she is getting a 2-fer. She is very special to me so she certainly deserves it.
While she was oohing and aaaaahing at the spa, Vision and his wife were polishing Leu Cat. Also, I had the electrician come today. Before he arrived, I figured out why the starter batteries were not being kept charged when the generator was running or when we are plugged into shore power.
I had pulled out the various schematics for the wiring of the boat, the old Xantrex battery charger we used to have and the new Mastervolt battery charger we now have. I then inspected the various electrical lines to see if they matched the schematics. What I discovered is that the two battery chargers address charging the starter batteries differently. Basically, the “certified” electrician that I had hired to install the new charger never ran a separate low amp line to the starter batteries. Thus, they would only charge when I was running the engines and would never charge when either we are plugged into shore power or when the generator is running. Grrrrrr!
When the electrician came he concurred with my analysis and installed a new, low amp line to the coupling switch that connects the two starter batteries was an easy fix. He also inspected the electrical connections on the solar panels and confirmed what I had suspected. The one panel, that had failed, had a connection to the main line that was totally corroded. That also was an easy fix. While he was at it, I had him inspect and change the connections for each of the panels. They are 9 years old so, if one connection had failed, I thought that the others were not far behind. Soon, the new connectors were in and all three panels were putting out the amps as they should. Yea!
By now it was mid-afternoon and Mary Margaret returned to Leu Cat with her skin glowing and a big, happy smile on her face. It was a good day today!