Magnetic Island Marina – Learning all about engine electric systems

Well, the two months planned for our stay in Magnetic Island are way over now. We’ve been back from our SE Asia land trip with the idea to rest a bit and then continue up QLD east coast to Cairns and beyond towards Lizard Island. This is still on the plans but we are stuck in Magnetic Island marina with a new problem, this time an electric problem in the starboard engine. 

The first time we run the engine after coming back on board we didn’t notice that the starter motor remained engaged while the engine was running, it kept going until it gave up and burned with a lot of smoke and a very bad smell, THAT we noticed, something had gone really bad. Since then we’ve been replacing parts and troubleshooting without success. 

The new starter motor installed and the problem persists. The engine’s electric system behaves strangely and problems are intermittent which makes troubleshooting a real pain. At this point we have a retired electric engineer scratching his head and trying to help us. Three times already we thought we’ve found the problem, just to realize with a second test, problem is not fixed and we are back to square one.   

In the meantime we have enjoyed company of many friends. Dave and Booker from Tortuguita came around and stayed at the marina before continuing their travels around the world. We thought we wouldn’t see them again this season but timing was good and we had a chance to share pizza one more time. They just arrived in Darwin now getting ready to go with the rally across Indonesia. As always David has been helping with lots of suggestions and ideas to fix our problem and he keeps doing so over the phone. Mark from Axis Mundis was here as well and joined in the pizza night.  One weekend we rented a car and went over to Cardwell to visit Maryanne and Barry. We met them in Panama, they line handled for us during Zenitude’s Panama canal crossing and we shared many anchorages during the Pacific crossing in 2010.  Their boat Toroa is now in Japan waiting for them to come back to more sailing around there.

So, not all is worry and work and every now and then there is lots of fun too. Like other times before, we'll surely find and fix the problem, hopefully, soon.

G.