We concluded the first leg of our adventure on Saturday (6/19), sailing/motoring from Holland, MI to Pentwater Lake about 70 miles north. Conditions were less than optimal, as they always are, but we had to get Don and Joan back to their home in Pentwater on Saturday. With following seas and 18-23 kt winds from astern, we made the journey in just 8.5 hours. The seas were 3-8' and calmed down quite a bit north of Muskegon.

We anchored right off the seawall of Don & Joan's home on the lake. Saturday evening I kicked on the genset to run the refrigerator/freezer and battery charger. Started fine and early indications were it was running properly. A while later I noticed the batteries were not charging, and then I discovered the AC output voltage from the genset was reading ZERO vac. Puzzling as the single cylinder diesel that powers the generator was humming along and all indicator lights were green. So I shut her down for the evening and hit the sack.

Sunday morning I looked through the troubleshooting manual for this Fischer Panda generator. Not much help. For this particular situation it essentially says, the generator is fine, there must be something wrong with your breakers and/or AC distribution system. Hmmm? Where to start?

I opened all the easily accessible areas I could inspect for a loose wire(s). Nothing obvious. I did not pull off the genset case in the starboard locker to inspect the unit directly.

So we made the decision to pull into the Snug Harbor marina at the west end of the lake. We had to head back down to Holland Monday (6/21) to retrieve the SUV that we will be putting in storage.

We had the technician from the marina come this morning to check things out. He looked for the obvious, another circuit breaker that might have tripped, but just like me he could not find one. He suggested I contact an expert on Fischer Panda generators. I called Torrensen Marine in Muskegon and a service agent asked me a few questions about the problem; basically the same result; no real good idea of what happened. So now we sit waiting for a call back from Torrensen with the hopes of getting to their facility in Muskegon, some 30 nm south and in the WRONG direction as far as our current itinerary goes.

Without a generator, there will be no travel.

So we have to deal with this setback. At least we are not sitting in a remote part of the North Channel with a stocked freezer full of meat!

If you find yourself in Pentwater, Snug Harbor is a very nice marina with great access to 'downtown' and right across the street from a small, but high quality market with fresh meats and produce. There is a small wine shop downtown with a great selection and very good pricing. We will add to our provisions before we depart Pentwater, I am sure.

Update: We need to wait until Thursday to head to Muskegon as the weather predictions are for 5-8' seas and severe thunderstorms and high winds. The marina looks good to me on these kinds of days.