Now that we were back in the States and anchored, it was time to give the heat in the quarterberth some more thought. Jeff had decided as we were going through Indian River Lagoon that it wasn’t the heat from the engine, and we determined that in reality the batteries were VERY hot. Honestly, this could have been a dangerous situation had they caught fire at any point, but we got lucky.
We consulted our cruising friends on SV Lone Star and SV Minx who are much better at electrical issues than we are, and they both suggested that the regulator in the alternator had failed. The regulator stops the electricity from going into the batteries once they are full. When it fails, the electricity keeps flowing and the batteries get increasingly hot as they overcharge.
Only one travel day away from St. Augustine where we could receive parts, we kicked around various ways to get there without overheating the batteries. Again we consulted Lone Star and Minx, and we decided that we would disconnect the batteries after we started the engine. We could use our iPad for navigation so we didn’t need our instruments. If the batteries were still cool at the end of the day, then it was obviously the regulator.
It was VERY weird traveling without a depth sounder, but we chugged along for the day and 59 nautical miles later we were on a mooring ball with the batteries still cool. It was the regulator.
We ordered up the needed parts from Beta and had them shipped overnight to the Municipal Marina. Honestly, it had been several years since we had stopped in St. Augustine so it wasn’t exactly a hardship to spend a few days there. We have several friends that live there (some having relocated from the northeast) and while we didn’t have time to see everyone, we enjoyed the company of those we did. Hopefully next season we can get together with everyone!
Replacing the alternator was easier than we expected (THAT is a rare thing when it comes to a boat project), and a day later we had a weather window to hop outside from St. Augustine and go straight to Beaufort, SC. By now it was May 13th and we REALLY needed to get back to Connecticut, so we were glad to be making some tracks. Little did we know how slow going it would be after that.
The overnight to Beaufort was a mix of sailing and motoring. As we were heading up the river towards the Ladies Island Bridge, a commercial vessel passed us and we couldn’t keep up to catch his bridge opening. No big deal, we figured. It was the weekend so the bridge openings were on request.
When we arrived at the bridge we asked for an opening, and soon the gates were down to stop traffic. Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Apparently the bridge was stuck in the closed position. We asked the bridge tender how long he thought it would be, and he apologized but said he wasn’t sure. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. It had been 165 nautical miles and we were literally less than 2 miles from our anchorage. We were tired and frustrated, but it wasn’t the bridge tender’s fault. Eventually we gave up. Thunderstorms were coming in, so we told him we were going to backtrack and anchor farther down the river. Going backwards wasn’t the greatest way to end an overnight, but 20 minutes later we were securely anchored – and it didn’t rain on us until after we were tucked into our cabin!
Coming up: part two.
Adventures on the Club 