It all started in Aruba, when ever I ran my engine to recharge my batteries, it took at least two hours to get them fully charged, which is twice as much as a month ago in Curaçao and I don’t think it had anything to do with the different islands…
This is the Alternator story.
First I should explain what an alternator is and how important it is in a sailboat. Perhaps I should start by telling that I live on my sailboat “Solitude”, a 44 feet sloop with a fiberglass hull, build in 1974 in Michigan, USA. Currently I live in Curaçao on “Solitude” with my anchor put down in Spanish Water.
Well back to Aruba and the hours in the beautiful turquoise anchorage with a view to a white sand beach containing a few palm trees and a little bar. Around “Solitude” turtles are popping their head out of the water to get a mouth full of air, flamingos flying by showing there pink color and a Perkins 4.236 engine roaming from the belly of “Solitude” for two straight hours.
So why don’t I just turn it off?
Why is the power so important?
On a sailboat you don’t have the freedom to plug in any power device and run it for hours or even months, you are limited the power from four to five 12 volt batteries and they need to be charged every once in a while, like every day is really good. That’s why I have installed solar panels and they work very well until a cloudy day comes or like every evening when the sun is setting. But lets assume that in this paradise there are no such thing as cloudy days, it is after all the sunny Caribbean… My refrigerator is the biggest consumer of power. That little unit can drain my batteries in one night if there has been a, once in a year, cloudy day. When ever I walk around supermarkets, I can not believe how much power the 30 meter long, open meat refrigerators use. I’m struggling to keep the voltage up with less than two cubic meters!
Another thing I could do was to stop using it. I have met many sailors who don’t have a refrigerator and don’t want one but to that I have only one question, how do you get cold beer then?!?!?!?!
No way, on “Solitude” the beer is cold even though you can get used to many things. Once I was in Hungary with my very good friend Mads to watch a Formula One race. We stayed in a tent or I stayed in the tent because Mads had trouble getting through the entrance at night when we had had a few beers and apparently preferred to sleep just outside the tent with his clothes and shoes on. Anyway, we didn’t really think about what to bring on this little expedition and how to keep our beers cold but after a few it was all right and that week we didn’t have any cold beers. Yes, you can get used to a lot but I never forget the first cold beer after that trip. It was like being reborn and I swore by the Nordic gods that warm beer was history in my world never to be repeated.
The alternator is a like a dynamo on a bike. It produces power when the engine is running and that is really good when ever you would hit that one day out of the year that sunny Caribbean gets clouds.
I couldn’t understand it took two hours in noise from the engine just to get a few beers cold. I had meet a Norwegian boat with Hugo and Cecilie and Hugo told me that an alternator should charge with at least 13,5 volt but around 14 would be better. This fact I had read somewhere before but didn’t think that 0,5 volt would make any difference and that night I found out that my alternator only charged with 12,8 volt. The sunny days returned and there was no problems getting the beer cold again, it was just a bit irritating that the alternator didn’t really work. I tried to clean the connections and a few other things but nothing worked, it was stuck on 12,8 volt.
The trip from Aruba back to Curaçao was against the wind, waves and current and I did it by my self but that is another story. The engine was running almost the entire 21 hours it took me and my batteries was fully charged once again.
After a few days of relaxing back in Curaçao on my boat trying to recover from the trip I was ready to get the alternator fixed. It does not take long to get it off and another sailor called Ton knew of a place where they were experts regarding alternators.
I don’t want to put them in a bad light so instead of calling them by their real name, Santa Rosa Motor Part, I will call them The Workshop!
It was a Saturday morning I took it in and the guy would phone me back if it was fixed in the afternoon but my phone was in deep silence.
Back on “Solitude” I relied hundred percent on my solar panels and sunny Caribbean to get cold beer, juice, milk and meat and from the day I took the alternator off the engine to get it repaired, the sunny Caribbean decided to become cloudy Caribbean and at this point I had no idea that is would last for another nine days, I was still a happy man.
The following Monday turned into Thursday when I called the workshop and asked how my alternator was doing. An apologizing old man said that they had to wait to get spare parts but it should be ready the following day.
Now you can ask you self, why didn’t he call me a few days before?
Why did I have to call him to get some answers?
And could he come up with a better excuse than this completely stupid one?
The one and only answer is: This is Curaçao!
Friday I went to pick the alternator up at the workshop, finally I had it back in my possession. The 15 minutes drive back I was smiling and still a happy man even though it was still cloudy but two days in a row anybody could handle….
Like at baby I carried the alternator into the dinghy being really careful not to drop it in the bottom of the dinghy or in the water. Back on Solitude I put it on the engine, a little operation that takes around 10 minutes, crossed my fingers and started the Perkins 4.236 engine.
Last year I was sailing around The Caribbean with my good friend and anchor champ, Rolf. At the end of our cruise through the Windward and Leeward Islands we found our selfs in Bonaire and wanted to change the main fuel filter on the engine. This operation is no big deal, you find the filter, go to Napa, the shop with parts to cars and engines, get a new filter and put it back on. We did all this in one hour and wanted to fire the engine but nothing happened, Mr. Perkins was silent. Rolf and I looked at each other and said off cause it would not start. The little operation had evolved into a major task and the same happened on that cloudy day in the sunny Caribbean when I had installed the alternator, crossed my fingers and fired the engine, it was still on 12.8 volt and not working properly.
My face was already gas blue and I mentioned a few bad things into the air about The Workshop. I tried to measure the power from the alternator on every wire but could not figure it out. My idea in these situation, when you can't think of anything that will solve the problem, you have to go away from it and leave it alone for a while and what other place to go and get strength than the local sailor bar with the rest of the sailor thrash.
Every sailor has his or her own idea how to solve problems. Some sailors give you tips and say, this is how I did it and some say this is the only way you can do it and that was how I did it. I told the story a bunch of times and got various tips and ideas but some how every tip and idea ended with the same, take it back to the Workshop, they are the only ones and can fix any problem on an alternator.
Next monday I took my little baby, the alternator off the engine, put it in my dinghy, into my car, through traffic and back to The Workshop. The guy put it on a machine where they can measure the voltage coming from the alternator and everything was fine, it read 13.8 volt and he couldn't understand why I had come back, the alternator was perfect! I thought so too and went back to the car, through traffic, into my dinghy, onto Solitude and back on the engine but the reading was still 12.8 volt on my meter.
In the bar with the rest of the sailor trash I talked to a guy who didn't mention The Workshop as being any good. He said the only reason why every one is talking about it is because it is the only shop who can fix alternators. I was not a happy man when I heard this. If they were the only ones and they had fixed my alternator but it did not work, I was doomed! The guy said that Napa can check the alternator if it gives the right voltage or not but they could not fix it for you.
At this point of the story I kind of lost track of the days but that is not so important and will not affect ending.
In Napa they put it on the their machine and called me behind the desk so I could witness with my own eyes that The Workshop had made a mistake, the alternator did not put out 13.8 volt like The Workshop said but only 12.8, the alternator had not been fixed properly after all.
Everyone but me would have gone back to The Workshop to raise hell but I had all ready been back and they claimed it was ok so why even bother, I had to get a new one from somewhere. The Napa guy looked at the alternator, then at me and said I would never be able to find a new or used one on the island, I had to get it from America.
A friend of mine walked in to Napa and after a bit of explanation he said that he had an alternator that might fit the engine so we drove to his house, I got the alternator, went back to Solitude just to confirm that it did not fit. My happy mode was running out and it was still cloudy in sunny Caribbean.
The days past by and I had no idea how to get the problem solved until a friend of mine told me about an old man near the race track who could fix alternators, a matter of fact, that was the only thing he did. Next day I took my, at this moment, well travelled alternator to the old man and a few days later after locating a part for him from an old magazine from the late 1980's full of electronic equipment, I finally went back to Solitude. This was it, I was ready for the big relief and ready for more power to my batteries. This was day 9 with clouds in sunny Caribbean and I was losing hope. The fixed alternator did not work and I didn't know if I should laugh or cry so I did both.
Back at the old mans workshop right next to his house, he tested it again and found out that something I did not understand had burn out inside. The next day he would open it up and try to figure out a way to fix it. With my head between my shoulders I drove back to the bar to get a well deserved beer.
The look on the old man's face the next day, didn't look like a face which had just fixed an alternator and the conclusion was not good either, the alternator was unfixable and here by declared dead. The old man only charged me very little money and apologized but he did all he could do. If I ever hear about anybody with such a problem I would sent them to the old man.
Now there was only one thing to do, get an alternator sent from USA so I went to friends of mine who works in a weld shop and ordered one but out of nowhere he had one laying around, a different brand but he told me it would work. With doubt in my mind I took this brand new alternator to Solitude just to confirm that it didn't fit, I had to get a new one. We even tried to weld another piece together so it would fit but no luck.
The Caribbean became sunny again after 9 days with a cloud cover and the days passed with no alternator and no ideas how to get one. A good friend of mine came to Solitude to have a look at things but couldn't figure out the problem but one day he called me and said the magic words: I have an alternator that will fit you engine!
Same night we meet at the bar, him with the precious cargo and me with a big smile on my face. After lots of failures, mistakes and non existing luck I could still not believe he had found one. Back on Solitude I put the new alternator on the engine, an operation that I could win the world championship in. I turned the engine on and measured the volt coming out. It read 14.4 volt but I could still not believe it and I new if I was too happy too quick it would jinx the new alternator.
After 30 minutes and still 14.4 volt I yelled out the biggest "YES!" Spanish Water have ever heard.
The alternator is a like a dynamo on a bike. It produces power when the engine is running and that is really good when ever you would hit that one day out of the year that sunny Caribbean gets clouds.
