WELL . . . .It Wasn't The Fuse ! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

Inverter/Charger on ABISHAG is located in the "In-Law Apartment" of a cockpit locker, wherein among other things, I am current storing the Storm Jib - a moderate sized sail, think six or so bed pillows, the Cruising Spinnaker with its furler - think four(4) rolls of insulation for your house and fifty pounds of weight and the life jackets(4) in their bag. All of that had to be removed first before I could climb into the locker and then the flooring had to be pulled up - it is built to be removable - one section at a time to follow the wires from the inverter to the battery banks. Doing so, I found a fuse buss. It was unmarked but it had to be the fuse I was looking for. It removed it and took it back into the cabin and put it on the meter . . .which seemed to indicate that it was "good." It would have been better - cost wise -if it had been bad. It is a gas-filled ceramic concoction and you can tell be looking - unless it exploded - whether or not it was good except by the meter. I called Don the Magic Electrician in Mystic to confirm my find and (sadly) he did. SOOOOO . . . I had good battery, good connections, good fuse, all the switched on and the inverter charger still didn't work. I asked Don what that meant and he gave me the bad news, the problem was in the inverter/charger. He tried to lessen the blow by saying it might just be a bad board or something simple like that "but the only people who work on that type of inverter/charger is Brewer's Marina down in Westbrook."

I called them today and their local "magic electrician" said it would be better and less expensive to just get a new one. "Replacing one of the electronic boards would cost ....after bench testing and labor . . . . about $400. . . . and that's if it is a simple repair problem." Ouch! However, and this is a BIG "HOWEVER", the replacement would actually cost LESS than the repair! ! ! ! ! Evidently when I was looking at the possible replacements when the problem first reared its ugly head, I was looking at that wrong type of item . . . .a very, VERY EXPENSIVE wrong type of item. It's not that I have the money for it yet, but at least I am breathing a lot easier over this problem. According to the people from Brewer's, since there is already an Inverter/Charger in place, and the new one is basically company's new and better and updated version of it, it should be possible to move the wiring from one to the other and everything will work without missing a beat. Now, you just know it won't be that simple, but then again, it just might! We shall see! ! ! !

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

Sailing was glorious though the winds were very, very light and the post sail maintenance was potentially expensive . . . .$9 ceramic-gass-filled fuse verses a One Marine Unit Inverter/Charger. Well, it is just part of the funny and the cost of boat ownership. It could be worse but hopefully it won't be . . ever. I can't really worry about such things as it takes away from the peace and joy God sends in the sailing.