Because the generator isn’t working, we can’t start the boat using the starter switch. This is because there’s been a long standing problem where the main engine battery voltage drops before it reaches the starter. Dave hasn’t bothered to debug it because if we started the generator first, we could always start the engine. But without the generator we wanted to determine whether we are “dead in the water” so to speak. But Dave quickly determined that he could hot wire the starter by putting starter battery voltage directly to the starter – thereby bypassing the wiring between the starter, the start switch up in the cockpit, and the battery. This means that the voltage drop is somewhere in the wiring – probably a loose connection somewhere.
Melissa got word from Sail magazine that they aren’t going to publish her Nicaragua article. They made her remove all the inland travel and focus on the anchorages, which she did – precisely as asked. But then they decided it was too dry. Well, duh. Melissa has been pinging the editor every two weeks to ask whether they wanted more changes to the article, but the editor waited until two months after Melissa submitted the revised article to notify her that they weren’t going to publish it. Oh, and the editor also waited till her last day before quitting the magazine to send Melissa the email. Well, time to submit the original more interesting article to some other magazines!