Ran Engine

It was too cold this morning to start taping and caulking -- I'll do the at this afternoon -- so I decided to check out the engine. I hadn't run it since I winterized it back in the fall of 2008, so I wanted to make sure she still ran okay. It's water cooled, so running it on land involves disconnecting the salt water intake hose and putting it in a bucket you continuously fill with a hose.

On my boat, that means I had to run the water hose into the cabin, remove the ladder and engine cover and stick both the water hose and intake hose in a bucket on the cabin sole next to the engine. With this arrangement, I had to leave Zoe out in the sun in front of the boat.

She started okay, but used so much water, I had trouble getting enough into the bucket and had to climb down twice and increase the water flow. I wanted to make sure the hoses I reinstalled didn't leak, so I ended up running her for about half an hour, and didn't see any leaks. However, the tachometer didn't work. I check the wires and didn't see anything hanging, so I'm not sure why it wasn't working. I spoke to Matt later and he said they normally read pulses off the alternator, and suggested I check those wires. Unfortunately, I didn't even check to see if she was charging at the time, so I'll have to run her again, probably tomorrow. The good thing about running the engine is that it warms the cabin up nicely, so I don't mind running it early in the day.

I sure hope it's just a loose wire and nothing more serious, but installing a new alternator isn't the end of the world. And since I'll probably want to do that eventually anyway, this might end up being the best opportunity. Better now than later, especially at sea. A lot of people suggest adding a high output one to recharge the batteries quicker, especially if you're out cruising a lot. Those sometimes have issues, but I've got a 27 hp Yanmar, so I've got plenty of power to spare.