Delays Delays Delays

The view out the cockpit window in Ft Worth

As soon as I entered the cockpit in New Orleans last night, I could see we had a problem. The EICAS displayed a main battery charger fault. This is a no go item because if you lose all generators and are down to the most basic of standby instruments, these will be powered by the battery, and if the battery is not charging, game over. Interestingly enough, the New Orleans ramp does stock an extra battery charger for the 757, and they swapped it into place. Still no luck. They tried a new battery; nothing. By this time our Fort Worth freight was being transloaded to the Memphis Airbus to protect delivery and anger the crew. Eventually, maintenance discovered a secret hidden circuit breaker for the battery charger and reset it. We then had an empty airplane to fly to Fort Worth in order to bring freight back to NOLA on our regular flight. Unfortunately, thunderstorms were just hovering over Fort Worth, waiting for our arrival. The FO did an excellent job getting us on the deck in a nasty storm, but the ramp was closed due to lightning when we pulled in. We sat for 30 minutes until the weather eased enough so that maintenance could come out and marshal us into our gate. As I write this, the sort is at least two hours late and counting...it's gonna be a long night.