KISS

SANTA IN MEXICO

TIBURON AT SUNSET

UNENCLOSED GEN-SET

ENCLOSED

Keep it simple stupid.  This was the point of one of the first books I read on how to get a boat ready for cruising.  It was also the point made by the next half dozen books.  I never have been good at following instructions.  We have ended up with a very complex boat.  And one of the most complex systems has given me major grief twice in the last week.  The culprit is my gen-set.  Stupid gen-set, gen-set, stupid. 

It has a multitude of parts: valves, pumps, sensors, regulators, injectors, starters, stoppers, uppers and downers.  All of which must function in harmonious synchronicity in order to make electricity for my battery.  Today one of the little sensors broke.  It was sensing the temperature of the alternator, and didn't like what it saw, then it did like it OK, then didn't, then did.  It was doing this about twice a minute, causing the electric output to go from 95 amps to 0 amps back to 95 etc. etc.  Fortunately I'm still only a phone call away from the experts, and they diagnosed it as a sensor problem and had me remove the pesky thing, which was only an expensive optional extra anyway, and not completely necessary.  I did the appendectomy, and was back in business.  It turned out being only a 1.5 on the flop-sweat spectrum.  Hardly worth mentioning, except without the generator we are screwed 'cause we squander electricity on our boat. 

Gonna have to rethink this KISS thing.  Maybe stop playing on my power hungry laptop....nah.