Monday, August 17, 2009

Alternator Rebuild

As a cruiser I am constantly being pushed out of my comfort zone. Sometimes it is offshore when the wind pipes up and the seas are growing, sometimes it's at anchor when a boat drops the hook on top of our bow pulpit, sometimes it is when my oldest kid asks me to help him with his Algebra, but most of the time it is because the boat breaks... In case you don't own a boat... let me just inform you... boats break... all the time... everywhere... always in very hard to reach spots... and nothing is ever a cheap fix... ever. ever.


So on our last blog I told about our alternator. Well today with Andys help I pulled it all apart and rebuilt it... I was able to find all of the parts within walking distance (hot walks though) and I spent less than $100 US on everything. I must say that these days are few and far between. Usually the whole process involves multiple long trips from one part of an island to another and ordering in parts from some far off port, paying taxes to get them out of customs... resending them because the part was the wrong part... finally fixing the offending part and something else breaks when it is being installed... I could go on.

I am very thankful to Andy for helping me and next time I can do it by myself... which means it will probably run with no problems until I sell the boat one day.

Time for Supper,
Captain Tofer

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