Repairs in Nassau

Dec 29^th, 2009

Mike has been through the manual twice and has tested everything he can.  He’s befuddled, and anyone who knows Mike, knows that’s hard to do.   We took the dingy over to a Nassau Yacht Haven, where I was able to do the laundry at their Laundromat for about the same price as it would have cost me in the states (an unexpected surprise).   Mike searched out someone who could test and possibly rebuild the old alternator.   He hiked around the streets of Nassau and was directed to the Bay Street Garage.   He told the guys there he needed an alternator bench tested.   They called in their local guy, Jack, who specialized in alternators, he took the alternator and had Mike follow him out the back door of the garage and up to the second floor where he tested it and told Mike that he had a bad regulator.  He told him to come back at 2:00pm and to ask for him specifically.   I finished the laundry and Mike and I took the dingy over to the Green Parrot where I could check e-mail and access WiFi while he went to see how Jack was fairing with the alternator.   I made myself comfortable at the Green Parrot and worked on the blog.   Mike returned from the garage and flopped into a chair looking disheartened.  “He is still looking for parts” he said.  I have to go back at 4:00pm.   We kept our fingers crossed.  Mike returned to the garage at 3:30pm.  Jack told him he was early and he was still working on putting it back together (a good comment).   Mike also took the spare alternator to Jack for him to test.  It turned out that both alternators were bad.   When Mike returned he had a repaired alternator in his pack.   We went back out to the boat and Mike installed the repaired alternator.  We will keep the other alternator and try to find a new regulator online for that one to keep as a spare.    We fired up the engine and brought the RPM’s up and were delighted to see that we were finally charging the batteries with the engine again.    We decided we would leave in the morning for Norman’s Cay to spend the New Year.   We walked the streets of Nassau one last time to pick up some additional fresh fruit and bread for provisions.