Bequia, St Vincent

We’re anchored in Bequia. It’s a beautiful night, with not a cloud in the sky and the most amazing array of stars spanning across the heavens. It’s also absolutely calm leaving the sea an oily black in the darkness. Quite unusual: I’m not sure I can think of such a calm night since we arrived in the Caribbean; it’s normally always windy.

So the last week has been eventful. While Kady was here we noticed that the batteries were not charging like they should – we had some charge, but not enough for our electricity charged lifestyles (you see, Club Bandit requires strobe lights, lasers and sound systems for dancing each night). It turns out our alternator had burned out and was just putting out a trickle of power. We sailed back to Kingstown, St Vincent as there was apparently and alternator expert there. I disconnected it, and hired Conway, a local do-everyting-mon, to haul me up to the high hills of St Vincent where the shop was. It worked out well as they were confident they could repair in within the day – great, without it we have no lights, refrigeration etc. and we were keen to get cracking.

Three days later it still wasn’t repaired. So, can you repair it? “no mon”

Turns out it needed parts from the US which were too much of a hassle to get.

So I called a few companies for advice, then jumped on a flight to Barbados which connected to Miami which connected to New York so I could pick up a new alternator and regulator. New York was great and I saw my mate Sylvain and his partner Therasa which is always fun and thought provoking (we discussed the electoral Primaries which I have struggled to follow) and I also saw my solid mate Henry and his sharp fiance Liz; it’s good to see your mates going off and is a champion. Anway, the new alternator is now installed and working well, and it has a nice little LED display that tells you it’s working and pumping out amps; all magic as far as I am concerned. It also explains nn what we’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks. The regulator I bought can control two alternators, so later we may reinstall the old one and we’ll be able to sell surplus power into the National Grid.

26 Jan 2008