When it Rains, it Pours

[wolverine]

I was cleaning up the interior of Sur La Mer last week and while doing so I had the stereo on.  When I was finished, I thought I had turned everything off and closed her up.  As I was readying to leave, the wife called and asked me to stop at the Piggly Wiggly for a few items.  I turned the stereo down and went into the cockpit to talk.  Now I admit am not a multi-tasker and should have taken notes as I forgot to grab some of the items she requested.  After hanging up I closed the companionway doors and slid the hatch closed.  Today I went to the boat for an afternoon sail, but the engine wouldn't start.  The solar charge controller wasn't showing any voltage going in either.  I checked the solar panel and it's functioning fine.  Looking things over, I had left the main battery switch on along with the stereo and electronics, plus the controller crapped out.  The batteries are in the garage on a "repair" charge and a new controller has been ordered. 
I had also left the aft quarter berth port open (opens to the cockpit) and we received over 6" of rain since I was last at the boat.  The good news, the shallow bilge only has about 3/4" of water in it.
The previous owner had printed several checklist cards for getting the boat ready, and putting her away.  I'm going have to display them in a conspicuous place so I remember to shut things off next time.

[CapnK]

Gee am I glad I have *never* done anything like that... Nope, never at all...

;D

[wolverine]

I brought both starting batteries home and attached them to two different smart chargers.  Both chargers showed battery #1 was too low to charge, and battery #2 showed a full charge.  I wired a 12 volt bulb and tried it on a deep cycle battery from the Compac.  The bulb lit up, but not with either of the starting batteries.  Not wanting to spend too much money, I went to Walmart and bought two group 24, 1000 mcc batteries to replace the two dead 650s.  I also took the deep cycle battery and hooked it up in the boat to make sure everything else worked.  The engine started and all the electrics worked fine.  My mistake cost $335.  Arrrgh!

[wolverine]

I topped the batteries off1¹ before heading to the boat and when I arrived, found 1/4" of water above the cabin sole.  I installed the batteries and the sump started up.  It took a long while to remove all the water and I discovered a steady stream of water coming from the engine compartment.  It was when I was under the cockpit when I saw smoke coming from in front of the engine.  The alternator was the culprit.  I turned off the power and removed one of the batteries.  Started the engine and all looks good. I must have wired them wrong.  Of course now the battery selector switch is hard to turn.  With almost all my tools still in storage up north, and not really knowing what I'm doing, I placed a call to the  mobile marine mechanic and left a message.  I decided to remove the new starting battery and install a deepcycle to make sure there is plenty of juice to run the auto bilge pump all night. There is an on the water "Pirate Jam" this Saturday and I was hoping to bring our daughter and her family.  Time will tell.

[CapnK]

Sometimes if you hit a "dead" battery with a high voltage "speed" charge, it will come back to life. The only chargers I have seen that will do that are NOT 'smart chargers', just the old-school kind with a selector switch. Whomp it for a bit and then go back to a regular charge setting. I think that desulfates the plates enough that they'll accept a new charge, even if not with as much capacity as original. An old salt kinda guy showed me this, all possible Disclaimers apply. :)

[wolverine]

I figured out what was going on with the smoke.  Apparently it isn't possible to wire two batteries with different amperage together.  Since I wired the starting battery with a deep cycle battery, it caused something to overheat and smoke.  A thorough inspection found no melted wires or connectors.  The marine mechanic is meeting me at the boat tomorrow morning.  Hopefully he can fix it we can go to the "Pirate Jam".