Lightning Strike and Errors Made (part 1) article on janice142

Home | The Boat | First Mate | Admiral | Guestbook

Date: 12 March 2021. Lightning Strike and Errors Made (part 1)

© janice142

Due to friends aboard boats with slower download speeds, I broke the lightning series into two articles. For those with poor wifi connections, here are your links:

Lightning Strike and Errors Made (part 1) ...this page

Lightning Strike series Conclusion (part 2)

Folks who prefer everything on one page should click this link:
Lightning Strike series Summary (parts 1 and 2)

It all started 28 December 2020, though at that time none of us were not aware of how far the problems went. This is part one of the lightning series. Today I detail how fortunate I am to have a great neighbor, and the far reaching events that began late last year. Mistakes were made by me. Here is what I learned.

I have one of the best neighbors possible. His name is Cap'n Dave and he's been a real blessing as far as the small boating community I share here on the beach. The man pays attention to noises that are out of the norm. Then he calls or texts so further investigation can be made.

Cap'n Dave enjoys boating in both center console speed boats and larger vessels.

What happened: On 28 December Cap'n Dave sent a text saying he heard an alarm coming from one of the boats west of his home. I'm almost always up late writing so I went looking to isolate which boat was alarming off. It turned out to be a Prairie.

This is the Prairie, when she was in slings at Salt Creek Boat Yard:

I told you about my experiences at that yard in the Salt Creek Boatyard article.

The first thing I did upon entry was pull the batteries out of the CO alarm in the main cabin of the Prairie trawler. I then opened up the back door and windows. It had been storming so the breeze was brisk. After airing out the boat I closed her up then returned home.

A bit later that night Cap'n Dave said the alarm was again going off. This time the CO alarm in the forward cabin was ringing. Again I aired out the boat. About the only thing that will cause an alarm to go off on a boat is a battery off-gassing. I assumed that was the case here so made sure the battery charger was shut off. Then I returned home.

Side Note: The smoke alarms aboard the boat were silent.

The following day the boat owner came down. He verified that the
water levels in his 6-volt battery bank were a-okay. All was well there.

In addition to the 6-volt battery bank there existed one addition battery. That one was a new 12-volt batt used to start the Westerbeke generator onboard the vessel. It was purchased and installed last year. I did it, and therefore we had no reason to believe a virtually new battery would be the cause of the alarm.

With the battery charger off, no further alarms sounded. Tracking down the source of the alarm the previous evening didn't stay a priority once we were sure there was water in the old batteries. Both the boat owner and I thought this might have been an odd one-off. It slipped from our minds.

MISTAKE #1: Ignoring an alarm.

Then came Jesse, a *shipwright of some renown hereabouts...

*Shipwright: An individual who understands marine systems, and is able to troubleshoot and repair same.

Via my friend Cheryl, Jesse agreed to spend some time here and resolve a myriad of issues the boats nearby and my Seaweed are experiencing. You met Cheryl and her husband Fred in the Sojourners Saloon article On Island Time (Schucker 440 Motorsailor). They are great folks.

Cheryl and Fred, in their dinghy:

Jesse started on the neighbor's newly purchased
vessel. She lacked instruments at the lower helm.

Boat projects always seem to take multiple trips to stores. Though I love outings, I prefer to shop versus buy. Buying trips for me are always stress-filled events. In addition to the instruments, a trip to Home Depot was required for a chunk of oak. That oak was used for the tachometer mounting box.

The TACHOMETER ↑ gauge is larger than the Oil, Engine Temp, and Voltage meter trio. Jesse sketched, cut out and sanded the oak piece for the tach. Then I did the finish work.

Ladies will understand how traumatic the disorder boat projects can become. This boat, the one that Jesse started on, has not been lived aboard yet so she's in major chaos. Ugh!!!

Hint: When I am painting or staining over several days, I do not clean my paint brush. Instead I put the bristles into a sandwich bag and store it in the freezer between uses. Thus I avoid the work of cleaning a cheap paint brush. In the few minutes between removal from my freezer and use, the brush is nearly defrosted. This saves work.

I do purchase the least
expensive brushes available.

Daddy bought good brushes and used them forever. He DRILLED HOLES → so he could hang his brushes after cleaning. Decades later, I still have his old paint brushes. Nowadays though I use them to sweep dust and puppy fur off the floor.

Skipper is my joy. I love this dog:

She helps me keep my sanity when my world tilts toward chaos.

Jesse consulted with the boat owner to decide placement of the tachometer gauge at the lower helm.

New instruments at the lower helm pleased the captain.

In the meantime Jesse was checking out the diesel Perkins *4-108. He said we would have to take the new alternator to a shop for an additional wire/stud so the tachometer gauge recently purchased would work. In the meantime we were running the built in battery charger to bring the voltage up.

*4-108: Spoken as four, one oh eight. This means 4 cylinders, and 108 cubic inches.

Regarding Alternators: If I understood it correctly an alternator with the addition of a single wire from the inside will work with a tachometer to display engine RPM's. Now I'm definitely NOT an expert, however I did find it interesting that I wouldn't have to install a "fancy" alternator to get this reading.

Whilst down in the engine room, Jesse noticed the *separate 12-volt battery was hot. With this discovery, the source of that CO alarm was identified. The newest battery, the one I had not checked because it was a recent purchase, was overheating and off-gassing.

*Separate 12-volt battery: The main battery bank is comprised of four 6-volt batteries forward of the engine. This batt, a single 12-volt Group 29 is the start battery for the generator. Group 29 is the size of the battery. The 29's weigh approximately 65 pounds.

Knowing where a problem is centered is always a good thing. Issues cannot be resolved until the
root cause is located. Having Jesse has been a real blessing. I can't wait until he gets to my Seaweed!!!

End Lightning Strike and Errors Made (part 1)

Lightning Strike and Errors Made (part 1) ...this page

Lightning Strike series Conclusion (part 2)

For folks who prefer everything on one page, this is the link you want:
Lightning Strike series Summary (parts 1 and 2)

Thank you for reading. More shortly.

Has your boat ever been struck by lightning?
And, how many CO monitors do you have in your home?

Regarding the Comments Section, found at the end of every article:

Before you type in each block be sure to hit the backspace key. Coding inserts a space in every box. Your email address will come back as malformed unless you remove that space. (You don't have to include your email address.)

The capcha is case sensitive.

COMMENTS:

© 2021, © 2023

Categories: Boat Talk, Characters, In the Bilges, Pets,

Feeding the birds (February 2021) ~ Previous Post ...
... Next Post ~ Lightning Strike series Conclusion (part 2)

First Mate's Gallery now open ~ Crew photos welcome via Email.