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| The Battery Charger (located on the starboard side and DIFFICULT to get to) |
Consider, that when water did not come out of the fawset I immediately assumed that the fresh water pump had failed and proceeded to obtain the make and model from the unit. Then I looked at the water tank gauge which read "Empty" and 1/4" lit indicating a quarter of a tank (25 gallons). When I check the tank after topping it off, the gauge was completely dead. In other words, no readings despite a full tank. In those few minutes, the remaining power in the port battery drained down to almost nothing.
All of us assumed that the solenoid had failed as the port side master switch did not activate it. With no power going to the activation switch and the solenoid, the solenoid would not engage. Another clue, which both Bob and I disregarded, was the fact that when he used a tester to test for power between the battery and solenoid he kept coming up with none. Note: He used a simple light that tests for current rather than voltage. When he first came down it lit up. Had he used a proper voltage tester we would have learned that the voltage was way down but, unfortunately, just enough to light a current only tester.
The key to electricity from my simple minded viewpoint is to always start upstream from the source and work your way forward. That made the battery charger the most immediate suspect. The fact that there was no light on the unit was further evidence of a problem. NOBODY suggested we look there.
Bob confirmed there was 120 power coming into the unit and no 12+ volts coming out. Bingo. The cause of the problem was verified. A quick call to the manufacturer resulted in a remanufactured unit being shipped overnight ($193 including shipping) for delivery by UPS at 10:30am.
Meanwhile, Bob hooked up a small portable battery charger around 9:30am and by 11:00am Diana inadvertently turned on the water only to discover that it was working. Literally, we had come full circle in 24 hours. GROAN!
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| Portable battery charger to get us through the next 24 hours |
Written by Les
POSTSCRIPT BY DIANA
What's it like living on a boat with no water, no lights and no bathroom?
At 5 a.m. this morning, Les threw back the covers and said "I have to go to the bathroom" and was out of bed putting his shoes on. I was resisting the trip in the dark down the dock, etc., but I had to go to the bathroom too. So I threw on some shoes and a robe and followed Les. He kept pace with me for a minute and then ran down the dock. We left so fast that I did not take a key to get back onto the dock and quickly had to decide whether it was more important to get locked out (again) or go to the bathroom. I chose the bathroom!
When we finally got back to bed I decided that what one needs to go cruising is a sense of humor. Somehow the sight of us running down the dock at 5 a.m. in whatever we could throw on fast enough had to make me laugh.
Boating is fun, right? And, needless to say, all about preparation--keys being most important! I hope you don't need a generator guy, because the name and number are on the boat which is now on the hard at Pier 11! Of course, I got the number from Fern at Hoppies, so in a pinch you can call her. In fact, after you leave Alton, if you need anything you can try Fern. On our last trip down, we were having generator problems, so called her when we were above Mel Price to tell her we would be there that night, and that we needed someone to look at the generator. She said she wasn't sure whether they could get anyone at their dock right away, but called us back a bit later with the name and number of a company that we met just below Mel Price who fixed us up!
ReplyDeleteI think the weather will hold up!