Mosquito Lagoon

Friday November 21, 2014
28 50 135 N
80 48 337 W

Underway promptly at 9 AM. The engines and all of Tide Hiker's many systems seemed to start up OK. Not a great forecast but we will be on the ICW all day so no big deal. We were fortunate in that we rode a favorable tidal current for 75% of the day. The forecast strong winds did not eventuate and we enjoyed weak sunshine most of the day.

The sun has just set and clouds are building but we are in a very secure spot so "no worries".

A lesson learned.....

In the above paragraph I wrote: "Tide Hiker's many systems seemed to start up OK". Any sailor worth his salt would recognize this error. We met a fellow in the Bahamas who was a professional fisherman in Texas. He had many rules about boats and boating, including the following:
* Never start a voyage on a Friday
* Never say "Everything is running well"
* Never say "The weather has been great"
* Never bring bananas on board!

Tonight just before bed I attempted to start the #2 generator to top up the batteries. Instead of the expected "crank and fire" I heard nothing, and then all the lights went out. We were in the middle of nowhere and the sky was 100% overcast so there was no natural light. We have a bunch of flashlights arranged around the boat so we soon able to function. The 110V system was OK (so the frig and the TV were OK) but the 12V system was totally dead. (The 12V systen runs 90% of the lights, all the pumps, the windlass, most of the navigation etc)

We started the port engine because that has a 280 amp alternator bolted onto it that would look after the batteries while I looked for the root issue. I started looking for "main" breakers and fuses and eventually found a "big" fuse on the engine room bulkhead that looked promising. The previous owner had left me a box of electrical stuff and found what looked like the right sort of fuse, and swapped them over. Bingo, we had lights again.

Decided not to mess with the generator that night as I had only found one fuse and we need 12V to get anywhere.