Nov 5 update

Friday, 05 November, 2010

We've had a very productive day here at Hinckley Yacht Services in Savannah.  Around 8 this morning, Tim Hamilton, the yard's electrical trouble-shooter came aboard and worked through our problems with the tachometer and alternator.  He found corrosion around some wiring connections down below on the engine and, in short order, he had the corrosion removed and the tachometer and temperature gauges back up and running.  He then assessed the voltage output from the alternator to the 4 main batteries and ran diagnostics.  He found that the alternator really is charging our batteries when the engine is running....what a relief!  He didn't need to pull the alternator and send it to the shop and we were *very* happy about that.  All in all, an easy fix for our problems with the engine.

Next, Dave Rancourt, one of the yard's repairmen, came aboard and managed to get our strainer for the engine off (it was too tight for us to twist) and he got all the muck cleaned out.  He reinstalled the strainer/housing and then proceeded to replace our impeller.  It's a good thing Scott insisted on this new impeller because the current impeller was SHOT!  The flanges on it were all worn down or off save one loan survivor.  No doubt we'd have had problems with it sooner rather than later.  Scott watched while Dave changed it out so he'll know the steps to go through when he does it himself.  Dave was very thorough and checked to make sure none of the broken-off impeller flanges were clogging the pipes.....he found that we were lucky and none were there.

Needless to say, we are thrilled to have all these repairs finished so quickly and to know that our engine should now be properly cooled and happy!  We can't say enough about the professionalism of both Tim and Dave and heartily recommend Hinckley Yacht Services here.

After the repairs were finished, we walked to a nearby Wachovia for some banking business and then stopped by a Piggly-Wiggly for some more items.  We walked back to the boatyard, paid our repair bill and then borrowed the yard's internet to check e-mail.  Scott will work on getting our ethernet up and running this afternoon.  We are looking forward to shoving off first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast as we continue our journey south on the ICW. The weather is beautiful but very cold and windy so we will stay in The Ditch for now.