This morning the mechanic arrived at 0900hrs to finish the V-drive installation/alignment that I had hoped would be completed yesterday. The "plan" was to depart this morning for either Santa Barbara for a few days of home school field trips to the local museums or Catalina Island and closer to our cast off point in San Diego. While he was working away, I heard a strange sound coming from the area of my electrical panel and looked at the breaker panel just in time to see my battery charger breaker "pop" off. Well, how can that be, I thought to myself, that's a new battery charger. Well the answer to "how can that be" seems to be because the battery charger is installed on a BOAT, which is an acronym for Break Out Another Thousand or BOAT for short!

I haven't dug into the battery charger problem yet, instead opting to watch the mechanic install/align the v-drive with a blank stare on my face while tapping away on my laptop to share my frustration. One thought I am having is to ignore the battery charger because we plan on anchoring out for the most part and with our two 105Amp alternators and 260W of solar could live without a 75Amp battery charger. Anyway I'm rationalizing, for a battery charge to work, we would need a source of 120v power...which we don't have on THIRD DAY without hooking up to shore-power. Yes we have a 3000W inverter, but using the inverter which is powered by the batteries to run the battery charger may sound like a good idea but violates some law of thermodynamics I'm sure!

So contrary to my typical mode of operation, I'll not act right away on this one, but instead let the reality soak in a bit. The choice of blowing MORE of our cruising budget before we even leave the United States to repair/replace the battery charger or doing without my 75Amp battery charger is swirling around in my head. Why couldn't the decision be easy, like would I rather be executed by firing squad or the hangman's noose? Has anyone seen my extra halyard...I think I solved that problem!

Editor Note No1: a strange sound is usually the first hint that you are about to spend more money unexpectedly on a repair.
Editor Note No 2: Any sounds coming from the area of a boat's electrical panel, especially crackling sounds are a BAD thing to hear! Stirring up similar feelings of dread as answering the phone to, "Hello Mr. Boren, this is the IRS and you have been selected for a tax audit"
Editor Note No 3: I've told Lori before that she's not getting rid of me and my life insurance money that easy.
Editor Note No 4: The above photo has nothing to do with this sad event, but cheers me up. It's of shot of Amy with a life size elephant seal at the Channel Islands Visitor Center here in Ventura. Amy has been afraid of sea lions for a few years now and the look on her face fits my mood at the moment!