Vero Beach - Last day

Hoolie was really interested in this fellow

Today was spent in trying to find the problem with the charger that runs off the Volvo main diesel. It was working fine until two days ago when it decided to take a vacation. So I did the simple stuff first like cleaning all the electrical fittings and taking measurements of the specific gravity of all the battery cells, 24 in all. Everything seemed to check out but it still wouldn't charge. That leaves either a defective alternator or defective regulator. There's advice to check the alternator by looking for a magnetic field around the rotor (touch a screwdriver to it) but the strength of the field is critical too and that takes a calibrated touch to gauge the pull strength of the magnetic field.

It's handy having a mooring map when coming to Vero Beach

The weather is okay for a trip north Saturday so we will leave in the morning. While we're there, we'll rent a car and I'll have the alternator bench tested. If that checks out, I'll get a new regulator. I guess I can't complain since the old charging system is 13 years old. It's a 65 Nm run up to Titusville so we'll need and early start.

A peaceful evening, our last night here