Brent Alley's website

February 14, 2020

On the recommendation of boat neighbour Marty, a fellow Nordic 44 owner, we hired Victor to fix the windlass.  What a job.  Seized bolts, rusted casing, awkward to get at. Victor persevered.  It took the better part of an afternoon to remove the windlass motor, two days in the shop to rebuild the unit and then about 5 more hours to reinstall.  

He replaced the brushes on the motor, put on new water resistant contacts and serviced the bearings, bench tested and reinstated.  He said it’s a good tough unit. It’s back on now and working. 

Next job was getting the windlass working again. For $170 US a guy here named Victor took it off the boat, replaced the brushes on the motor, put on new water resistant contacts and serviced the bearings.  It’s back on now and working. 

In other news a diver replaced the leads today. Lots done.

February 12, 2020

what could be more exciting that a picture of a broken water pump pulley. It was an engine stopper. We were able to source a replacement part from Ben Gartside in Sidney BC and since Spencer was flying down to Cabo he brought it with him. It was installed in Cabo by noble crewmate Gerry Weisgerber and voila, the engine worked again.

Next step has been to repair the inverter than quit shortly after the engine overheated and we resorted to charging our batteries with the Honda Generator. Since the engine overheated at 3 in the morning we relied on the batteries to get us through the night and fired up the generator when daylight cane.
Inverter/ charger control worked initially but eventually gave us the “can’t charge a dead battery” message. Even on shore power in Cabo we couldn’t persuade the controller to change its mind and let the batteries charge. We tested the batteries in mid afternoon and they measured 12 bolts so it seemed that the charger portion of the charger inverter was working just not the inverter. Little did we know that the batteries were only being charged by the solar panels.

So today in La Paz Will the electrician stepped on board to trouble shoot the Magnum inverter. He quickly diagnosed one core problem, although over time each day the batteries could recharge to near full status using the solar panels but didn’t retain the charge. Will stress tested the batteries under simulated load and we discovered that the batteries were actually worn out.

Once the batteries were replaced we found another problem, the 250 amp fuse between the batteries and the inverter had blown. That likely happened when the very tired batteries were drained all night. Now with fuse replaced and a spare in the fuse kit it’s all working again !

February 8, 2020

Barbara wrote some notes she had written during the last few days, as we were cooling our heels here in Cabo with engine issues

“We had quite an adventure coming down the coast from San Diego with our friend Gerry Weisgerber.  We have dragged a line with a big fishing lure behind us most of the way, but thus far, no fish have been hurt in the process. 

Ensenada was our first VERY bureaucratic stop in Mexico where we had to do our endless paperwork and pay too much money to bring the boat into the country! We paid a guy $60 to help us navigate through it – he was worth it?

On leaving very forgettable, dusty  Ensenada, we decided to sail out 180 nautical miles 330k!) into the Pacific to a barren and essentially deserted ecological reserve called Isla de Gaudelupe.  (It was Gerry’s birthday and that’s what he wanted to do…!)

We were mesmerized by the progressively warmer air and bluer water, and the porpoises that joyfully swam alongside and in front of us.  

That took a day and a half, getting in at sunset with no obvious place to anchor and gusty winds, but we finally put it down before dark.  It being a birthday, we whipped up a great meal and spent the night listening to the sounds of elephant seals echoing off the high volcanic rock cliffs around us, although we never saw them. 

Three men in an open boat surprised us in the morning, wanting to know why we were there as it is forbidden to land – a tiny population – and suggesting we up anchor! Which we did, but by that point, our windlass ( the electronics which that brings up the chain and anchor, had decided to break down, so Gerry got a work out.  

But we were glad we came -it felt as remote and barren and beautiful as the Arctic. Albatross nested high above us on one of the outer islands – very impressive. 

Apparently people will go Isla de Gaudelupe to dive in shark cages to see the great white up close and personal – on my top ten list of things NOT to do! And we didn’t see any – but lots of porpoises playing with us! “

February 8,2020

This morning we left Cabo San Lucas at 0730 and rounded the corner of the Baja. We are now officially sailing in the sea of Cortez.  It is so gentle here – warm breeze off the land and virtually no rollers.   The boat is pointed north for the first time since September ⛵️ 4, 2020

February 4, 2020

We’ve been asked what happened to the engine so here is the story about our latest sailing and repair adventure.  

We were about 12 hours out of Turtle Bay when the engine overheated and quit in the middle of the night. Barbara was on watch and we all came running into the cabin as it immediately filled with steam and the sound changed from the purring of the engine to the hissing of overheated coolant. When we opened the engine compartment we found antifreeze flung all over, even the boats electrical charger/inverter.  We inspected further and discovered that the pulley on the fresh water pump had come loose and broken off the pump. Since the engine could not be used we rejoiced that we could still sail. We had been motor sailing on genoa alone and were able to continue with reasonable NW winds but now with no motor to assist. We waited to daylight to put up the main. 

We still had about 200 nautical miles to go so decided that we would just continue to sail to Cabo St Lucas rather than turn back knowing we could get a tow into Cabo when we got there.  We checked the forecast and favourable NW winds were predicted.  

The other problem we had (are you sure you want all these details?) was that without the engine we had no battery charging and electricity would not be available for the auto pilot.  At least we had some alternatives to choose from.

We got the monitor wind vane steering going and used that to steer us without any power and then proceeded to pull our backup Honda generator out of the hatch. After a few tries it fired it up began to charge the batteries or so we assumed. 

About an hour into running the generator we noticed that we were getting a “dead battery” indicator from our electrical system monitor.  All checks gave us mixed messages from the charging system.  The battery monitor claimed the batteries were at 92% and yet simultaneously said we had dead batteries. As we carried on south we discovered that our batteries worked for about  6 hours after the genset ran out of gas and then everything crashed.  So we steered by magnetic compass and used our iPads for charts.  

Each morning we (Gerry) refilled the genset with gas and on the eco setting it ran about 12 hours. 

There are more technical details than that but I don’t want to overwhelm with any more of that. Fortunately we had strong enough winds to sail us from where the breakdown occurred to Cabo in 2 days with 2 more nights at sea.  When we arrived at Cabo we drifted into the outer bay and dropped anchor (note without a working windlass to retrieve it}. We were able to flag down a Panga Water Taxi who towed us into the marina where we are now.  

The engine parts arrived with Gerrys son two days later so we repaired the engine in Cabo and the next day set off for La Paz with motor working.  We will work on the electrical in La Paz where we know of good marine electrical  technicians.