Leamington, Ontario June, 20, 2016

Well, this has proved to be a challenging day. Two problems already on the first day of the trip. Wow.

It started well. I made coffee and shared Rosemary's delicious blueberry coffee cake with Matt, our Manager, who loves Rosemary's cooking, Jim and Jola and Peter and Marianna.

 I filled the water tanks and did a few other things to prepare for our departure. Kerry finished stowing all the stuff we brought aboard yesterday, and planted some herbs to take with us.

Peter pulled behind us up at the fuel dock. We agreed to talk on channel 72 and tried the radios to be sure we could communicate. I also got his MMSI number. After he left I placed a DSC call to him that worked, and then a DSC position request, which also worked. His position showed up on my chart plotter - really neat!

Peter and Marianna departing on Brillig.

Don casting off to start the voyage.

Once we were underway I tried to call Peter on the radio without success. I could hear him calling me, but he did not answer my return call. I texted them to ask if they had their radio on, and they did. One of us has a radio problem. Turns out it is me! Jim, in Liberty, went roaring by and I could communicate with him when he was near me. But once he passed, he could not hear me calling. I could see his boat, but he could not hear my transmission. So, my new radio is not working correctly. Bummer! I can receive better than I can transmit, but neither is real good. Even the Leamington Marina could not hear me calling them when I was only 1.4 miles out.

The trip to Leamington took 5 hours, at an average speed of 9.1 knots, and covered 44.1 nautical miles.

Later, in the marina, Peter and I looked at the connections. The antenna wire goes into the AIS unit, and then out from it into the radio. I suspect that the radio is OK. but that something is amiss with the wiring connections. If I was not so physically close to Jim and Peter in the marina I could take the antenna wire out of the AIS unit and plug it directly into the radio to see if the radio worked correctly with that hookup. Hopefully I would then know for sure where the problem is. I placed a call to Mark at Parker Marine but have not heard back yet. They just installed the radio on Friday.

And, on the way over I noticed that my batteries were discharging. This should not be happening with the engine running. They were not being charged. I fiddled around for awhile and checked the manuals for guidance, but to no avail. Then I turned the generator on, and presto, charging batteries. The problem most likely is with the alternator. All the fuses look OK.

Jim came over to consult after we docked and confirmed that something was definitively not right and agreed that a call to a mechanic would be in order. The  marina gave me a list of diesel mechanics in the area, but it turned out to be totally wrong and out of date. I found AJ at Southwest Diesel via Google. He proved to be most helpful and promised to send a man and truck over first thing tomorrow. I sent him a picture of the alternator label with all sorts of numbers on it so he would know what he is dealing with.

A bit later he called and said the alternator was a Cummins Marine alternator, made by Delco, which made sense. Turns out they are quite rare in Canada and take 4 weeks to get with a rush order. But, he has the same Delco alternator, but not made by Cummins Marine, that he could install. The only difference is that it connects differently, hardwired instead of using eyebrow plugs. He said all other specs were the same. After a brief conversation with Jim, I agreed to the installation - if indeed the alternator is the problem. This alternator is $200 instead of $500 for the Marine one. With the exchange rate it will probably only cost $150. He should arrive about 9:30 tomorrow.  I just fired off a note to the Nordic Tug Owners Group List for some second opinions on making this substitution.

One last problem on the trip over I was able to resolve. My XM radio would not come in well. It was putting out a real distorted sound, making it impossible to listen to. We moved the antenna everywhere to try and improve reception but that did not work. We had never experienced this problem before. The prospect of 2 months without Fox News was horrifying to Kerry so I knew I had to resolve the issue. I finally resolved the problem by switching the FM channel the radio transmits from 88.5 to 93.5. Why that worked and why I thought to do it, who knows? But it did - yea.

Calling into Customs was pretty uneventful. Kerry even told them she had plants, live and cut herbs. They were OK with that as long as we left them on the boat.

The May flies are out big time in Leamington. Boats are just covered in them. Here is a look at the canvas on the back of Annie. They are such a stupid bug. They just land and then die shortly afterwards. But boy do they make a mess when stepped on, and they get into everything. In the old days they were called Canadian Soldiers. It was a nasty joke that they had that name because they just rolled over and died. But out of respect for the way Canada has stood with us in the war on terror and the loses they have experienced that name has rightfully gone away.

Marianna hosted a dinner part for us all on Brillig. Jola brought appetizers, Kerry brought dessert and Marianna prepared salad and vegetarian lasagna with all organic ingredients. It was a delicious dinner and a beautiful evening to enjoy it in the cockpit of Brillig. The sunset was spectacular.

Peter and Marianna, and Jim and Jola