The Captain's Golden Touch

It was with a little trepidation that Jens started the repair on the GenSet.  It has been a long road of trying out things and talking to people about what the problem could be.  The generator was running fine but it just wasn't creating any charge to replenish our batteries.  We went down the expensive road of trial and error, replacing parts until we found the problem.  We know for sure it is not the voltage regulator, but I guess the good news is that we now have a spare one.  After talking to a few more people and some local experts, Jens decided it could be the carbon brushes.  So we ordered a couple of new sets since they are not an expensive part themselves, but the cost of shipping is often quite high.

We got back to the boat Friday around noon after our trip to Panama City to pick up the parts but thinking it would be a long and tedious job and afraid to be disappointed one more time, Jens delayed the repair until Saturday.   As it turned out it only took him about 15 minutes to install the new brushes. We started up the GenSet and waited to see if the green light indicating it was generating electricity would go on.  We didn't have to wait long.  That lovely green light went on!  Jens was so excited you'd have thought it was Christmas.  Hurrah!!  Finally, we have all things operational aboard SY SEGWUN.  What a lovely feeling.

Then we had even more good news.  The adjustment that Jens made to the propellor has resulted in a nice improvement to our fuel economy.  We figured it turns out to be about a 20% improvement.  Not too bad!!!  That kind of adjustment is easy to get used to.

I had some time over the last few days to go through my photos from San Blas and thought to share a few of the nicer ones with you.  Hope you like them.

A Kuna Hotel on one of the islands in San Blas.  Very rustic and peaceful.

The mountains along the coast.  Usually the clouds come rolling over the mountains just before a rain storm.