July 2, 2021, Friday, Presque Isle in Erie, PA

The batteries were lower than usual this morning (65%) because I could not get them charged as high as I like to last night. When I turned on the generator I noticed that instead of charging at 130 amps it was only charging at 28 amps. It appeared that the battery charger is not working and only the alternator on the generator motor was charging. Bummer. Well, this explains why the charging was so slow yesterday and means that this will not be a permanent condition once I get the problem fixed. I hope it charges with electricity once I am plugged in tomorrow. Of course I placed a call to Mark at Parker Marine for guidance. He called back and helped me go though some trouble shooting, but we were unable to find the problem. Now that I think about it, this is quite similar to the problem I had at the end of last year. The main engine is charging the batteries normally, fortunately.

It was rather cold this morning, 61 degrees. It was cloudy and raining this morning also, so it's not the best weather day. But as one man said, "You take what you get". It rained at least for 6 hours. Our front hatch started to leak at the end of the rain. I cooked tomato basil soup for lunch which really hit the spot. 

Jimbo had planned to visit us tomorrow in Erie. He said he is having gout problems and this along with our boat problems made us decide that it would be better for he and Jola to meet us somewhere along the return ports, and not visit us in Erie. Disappointing.

The afternoon turned beautiful much to our surprise. Kerry finished her book while I sat outside in the warm sunshine. At bout 4:20 we decided it was cocktail hour. Once again we sat on the V-Berth top. Today's snack was pistachios. We took a picture of Andrew's hat during cocktails. And because we heard thunder boomers in the distance, Kerry put a garbage bag over the front hatch lid to try and keep us dry. I did find one spot on the hatch gasket where I could put more glue. Later we had minimal rain.

Our anchoring neighbor, Rusty, motored over in his dingy to say hello as we finished cocktails. Kerry had started a conversation with him across the waters during our happy hour. He lives in Hawaii and is doing the great loop in a boat he bought in Bradenton, FL, very near our condo in Venice. He is staying the weekend. We said we would try and anchor near them on Sunday when we return. Kerry invited him over for a hamburger on Sunday. In this picture he is giving us an Hawaiian greeting, which he said was friendly! 

It rained again during our supper hour. More rain is predicted for later, but not for tomorrow. I don't think I have ever cruised in a week with this much rain. Fortunately, it has not changed our plans or impacted us very negatively. 

We plan to stay in Erie tomorrow night. I'll call Wolverine Marina tomorrow morning to see when we can arrive. The latest would be noon.