Leamington, Ontario June 21, 2016

There was a big storm last night. We almost missed it. One reason is that we had the air conditioner on. A second reason we almost missed it is that no water dripped on Kerry's pillow! Is the leak finally stopped? I sure hope so! We took electrical tape and taped the hatch seams where the plastic lens meets the frame. It is almost invisible and it has passed its first test. Keep your fingers crossed.

Ryan from Southwest Diesel was here right on time. He checked the alternator and pronounced it dead. It turned out though that the bracket they had on their substitute alternator was different than mine. He took the alternator away to find a suitable bracket.

BTW, many Nordic Tug owners responded to my inquiry and all were positive with regard to buying an alternator other than Cummins. I also called Tom at T-Diesel in Sandusky who does most of the work on my engine. He said all Cummins does is buy the alternator from Delco and slap their label on it.

After Ryan left we did a bike ride downtown and did our shopping. We visited 2 dollar stores, Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire. Kerry got a silver plastic ladle for Stefanie's shower and was elated about that.

One funny thing happens when we charge. I get an email from Capital One telling me the exchange rate price I was actually charged in American money before we even leave the register. The clerk is literally handing me our bag and my phone "bings" to indicate the email has arrived. Same thing happened at dinner tonight. Our $24 dinner was only $18.

I got a call from SW Diesel mid-afternoon. It turns out that the alternator was good after all. Ryan had errored earlier. Back on went the alternator. For the next 2 hours we tried to figure out what was wrong. The engine battery is being charged, but not the house batteries. I had Mark on the phone for about 1 1/2 hours of that time helping us trouble shoot.  It is complicated, but the oil pressure gauge sends a signal to the charging relay saying the engine is running and that it should charge the batteries, first the starting battery and then the house batteries when the starter battery is charged. Something is not working and we could not figure it out.

So, Annie is going back to Vermilion tomorrow. Mark installed all the charging systems and also the radio and AIS. He agreed to meet us when we arrive and will fix both problems. Once repaired, we will join Brillig somewhere. It is working out well that this is a where the wind blows cruise, because any schedule I had made would be off already. I disconnected the AIS and plugged the antenna directly into the radio. I will call Jim and Peter from various distances tomorrow to see if the radio range improves when the signal is not going through the AIS.

We all biked to Freddy's for a perch dinner. It was a good dinner, but it did not beat the perch at Kip's favorite place, the Erie beach Hotel in Port Dover.

We will depart for Vermilion tomorrow when we wake up, which will probably be between 5 and 6:00 AM.