It was a dark and stormy weekend...

The weather was coming.  I could feel it in my bones, and hear it on the radio.  I had the kids with me this weekend, so I wouldn't be able to work at the boat very much anyway.  That was OK though.  I had homework.  The alternator needed to be cleaned.  I could sit at my kitchen table while the kids slept and dismantle the entire alternator, determine if it needed to be rebuilt, then take the necessary action.  Saturday morning, after getting the boys their breakfast I started.  Ryan, my 8 year old, was more than interested in helping me.  A promising sign for the process.  I'd love to have my children involved.  I put him right to work scrubbing some small parts with a toothbrush and dish washing detergent.  I quickly realized that my socket set and my tools were down at the boat so I couldn't take it apart as much as I wanted.  Why is it that whenever I need a tool while I'm at the boat, it's home, and whenever I'm home, the tool is at the boat.  I think there's a special electronic chip that Craftsman puts into tools that is designed to make us by more than one of each tool.  This phenomena is part of the chips programming, as is the program that makes the tool fall into the most unreachable place possible when you drop it.  That special chip would certainly explain the expense of the tools.  In any event, I scrubbed as much as I could with a degreaser while Ryan happily scrubbed the nuts and bolts with the toothbrush.  A task that left little mark on the small parts, but kept him happy just the same.
After dinner, I was looking at the alternator laughing at me.  Mocking that I couldn't get it apart.  The boys were in their pajamas already, but it was only 6.  "Boys, put your shoes on, we're going for a ride!" 
"Nooo.  We don't want to go out"
"You can stay in the car.  I just need to run to the boat to get something"
They reluctantly put on their shoes and raincoats.  I loaded them in the car in teaming rain and 40-50 mph winds.  Welcome to the world of sailing, boys.  I drove in the crappy weather the six miles down to the boat.  It only took me 25 minutes.  Not bad considering the downed trees blocking the road.  At one point I had to go 3 miles the opposite direction to get around a closed road.  This is the type of thing that separates sailors from powerboaters.  You'll never hear the owner of a powerboat say "Yeah, I went out in a storm to get a tool from the boat"  I'm not sure if that's because sailors are stupid, or if powerboaters don't really work on their own boats.  I must say though, I've never seen a powerboater working on his engine, but I have seen sailors do some pretty stupid things.  There's always a professional mechanic working on the powerboats.
At the boat, the wind was stronger.  I fought my way up the ladder, then realized it was night and I couldn't see the combo on the lock.  Thinking fast, I pulled out me cell phone and used it's glow to see the combo.  I got the tools, and getting back in the car, Kevin, my 9 year old, decided he wanted to get out and 'experience' the storm.  That's my boy!  I unloaded him.  His brothers reluctantly wanted to get out too.  At this point it wasn't raining too hard, but the wind was about 30mph steady, gusting to 50 or so.  Of course, as soon as Ryan and Tommy, my 5 year old, get out of the car an incredibly strong gust hit us.  They freaked out a bit.  Kevin was laughing, loving every second.  I loaded them back into the car, with a mix crying and whoops of joy about how cool that was.  We drove home.
Once we got home, it was still only 7.  I began to dis-assemble the alternator and quickly found I needed to remove the flywheel before I got it apart any further.  I put the boys to bed considering my options.  After the boys were in bed, I attacked the flywheel again to no avail.  I went to google and did a search.  After realizing there's a 'flywheel puller' tool and hat the nut keeping the flywheel in place is put on with about 150 ft-lbs of torque, I decided the alternator was really working quite well.  I re-assembled it after thoroughly cleaning all the parts I could get to.  I began to paint it on Sunday morning.  I expect to finish it this coming weekend.
Sunday afternoon, I drove down to the boat to check that it was ok after the dark and stormy night.  My boat was fine tucked way in the back of the yard.  Unfortunately, there was a boat that didn't fair too well... or should I say it's stands didn't fair too well.  The boats around it seem fine though.  Monday morning it was back in it's stands and there didn't seem to be much, if any, damage.  I'm wondering if the yard owners even told the boat owner that there was a problem.