31 9.82N
081 7.7W
Passing St. Simons Island, Georgia. 12 nm off coast
We woke up to dreary rain this morning but I used the time to orient Kyndy various safety gear and procedures on Intermezzo for coastal sailing. I also made a big pot of vegetable soup- onions, garlic, carrots, celery, parsnips and turnips- good to have on hand in the galley for chilly temperatures.
After preparing Intermezzo for the ocean, we weighed anchor in Back River around 12:30 this afternoon. As we departed the anchorage, Kyndy noticed the tachometer for the port engine wasn't working and alerted me. The battery warning light was also lit. Bummer.
I took a quick look at the engine while Kyndy held the boat on station and noticed that one of the small signal wires coming from the alternator was broken. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to stop and fix it, so we dropped anchor again and I set to work on the repair.
First I looked at the starboard engine to make sure I knew where the broken wire needed to be connected. Pretty straightforward, it shared a plug connector with another wire. I got out my tools, found a new connector, cutoff the old connector, stripped the two wires, stuck them in the new connector, crimped it and started the engine to test it. Yay! Success. Total elapsed time, less than 45 minutes, anchor up to anchor up, again.
We left the Back River and headed into Doboy Sound and out its inlet. Dreary, grey, rain, chilly, very light wind, fairly calm seas.
We're now motoring on one engine, a bit slower than normal to time our arrival at Port Canaveral during daylight hours. The rain has stopped and the evening sky shows signs of promise of clearing. It is damp and chilly though. The vegetable soup is appreciated.
We'll likely motor until about midnight when the wind is supposed to start building and we can hopefully start sailing.
Tomorrow's weather continues to look promising- fair skies, decent, favorable winds and light to moderate swells.
