Windy days in Rock Sound

On Friday morning we went for a walk around Tarpum Bay. It was a very pretty little town that has been nicely kept up. Local fishermen were bringing in their catch for the day and many other locals were walking around. Everyone was super friendly and wished us a pleasant day. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed back to the boat.

Our plan for the day was to get into Rock Sound (a short 14 nm trip south of Tarpum Bay) early Friday afternoon and dig our anchor in for the predicted blow on the weekend. Mark fixed the water pump pulley the night before but Friday morning was the first time we started the engine after the repair. It started perfectly but within a few minutes, the tachometer stopped working and there was a terrible smell coming from inside the boat. I stopped the engine and Mark went to work (again). We were fortunate that the wind was coming from the south so I pulled out the jib and we managed a slow 3kts sail. After several attempts to fix the problem, Mark determined it was better to disconnect the alternator all together and just motor into Rock Sound as quickly as we could. Without the alternator, we can’t charge our batteries (leaving wind and solar to charge the batteries). Our batteries were slightly depleted from the night before and with the low winds we’ve been having, our wind generator hasn’t kept up with our energy consumption.

We arrived at Rock Sound by 1pm Friday and took the day off to relax and regroup. The predicted winds showed up on Saturday along with a little bit of rain. Mark spent the afternoon on Saturday diagnosing our alternator problem. It turned out not to be the alternator that melted but the external regulator (it’s regulates the output of the alternator helping it charge our batteries more efficiently). The smell was coming from it!!! When the water pump pulley fell off, it also disconnected part of the charging system. This disconnection led to the end of the regulator. Good news – the alternator was fine and it had a built in regulator. We’ll be running on this for awhile to see if our batteries can be charged well enough. Luckily it’s been very windy here so with the combination of wind and solar, we’ve managed to break even with charging our batteries and our consumption.

It sure has been a rough few days for Crimson Kathryn and Mark! Lots of problem solving going on and repairs on the fly! Not really want you want but at least Mark is excellent at this stuff. It’s also a bit disappointing that the things that are breaking now are not old – they don’t make things like they used to!!

We’ll be in Rock Sound until Tuesday morning when we’ll sail across to Cambridge Cay in the Exumas. The weather prediction for that day shows some good sailing wind so we’re hoping for an excellent sail to the Exumas.