September 25, 2008.

The weather forecast for today was for big wind accompanied by rain. We decided to spend the day on the boat doing chores.

First up was dealing with the generator once again. Yesterday morning while making hot water for showering it started to run in an overspeed condition so we had to shut it down.

The generator is comprised of a small diesel engine which drives a small electrical generator. The engine runs at a constant speed and this speed determines how much voltage the generator churns out. Unless of course it’s a Fischer Panda. When the generator goes faster than designed, the voltage spikes way up and could damage the boats electrical system. Since I’ve had to make this adjustment several times before I’m actually getting good at it. The governor that controls the speed of the generator really is a bullshit design and just a giant pain in the ass in general.

I had to disassemble a good bit of the engine room enclosure to work on the generator. So when I finished up with the generator I decided to see about the starting gremlin that had once again appeared when we left Herrington Harbour.

I ended up installing our spare starter. Of course when I tightened the large power lead to the solenoid the entire Bakelite end cap shattered. It was brand new but must have been cracked and when I tightened down on the connection it just failed. I ended up being able to use the old solenoid on the new starter so the boat runs again but I will have to find an auto parts store to get a replacement. If its not one thing……