We were only supposed to stay in Prince Rupert for a few days to re-provision, wait for some supplies and work on some small projects but in the end we stayed close to 3 weeks due to a broken alternator bracket. We did not know this and only found out that our alternator bracket was broken when we left the dock after five (5) days in Prince Rupert and were making our way through the bay when we noticed that our RPM indicator was being wonky and that there was a weird noise from the engine room. It took about 5 minutes of drifting around in the bay trying to find the source and luckily we did; the alternator bracket was snapped in half!! We slowly limped back to the marina and luckily there was room for us at the dock as it was the start of the August long weekend (Labour Day weekend). Unfortunately, because it was the start of the long weekend, a lot of the businesses were closing early which meant we could not parts to repair our problem until the following.
We are very fortunate to have a good working relationship and friendship with Gavin at Ocean Performance, and as soon as we phoned, he had his mechanic on the phone to try and work with us to solve the problem. In the end, we could not find a replacement alternator bracket in Prince Rupert and had to order it online from Amazon of all places. We have a Bosch alternator and the only bracket that works with our Beta 50 diesel marine engine is a modified Chevrolet 1968-1969 vehicle alternator bracket. Weird, I know but that is what works for us!
We ordered the alternator brackets right away and even paid for the express shipping but it showed up much later than expected. To fit the alternator bracket to our engine, we still had to cut it down and luckily a welding shop near the marina allowed us to use their shop and tools to get this done.
In addition to the broken bracket, our alternator was also shot and we had to replace that as well. Luckily, we had a backup alternator (don’t ask) and we did not have to wait for another one.
So why did this happen? We think that when Rob did a maintenance check on the engine in June, he did not completely tighten one of the bolts on the bracket and due to the vibration caused by the engine, the bracket vibrated until it broke.
We kept busy working on sewing projects, updating our internet system and walked the one local trail a lot.
So lesson learned; make sure all bolts are tighten before finishing the project!!
~Sophia and Rob
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Sailing Anuri 