ELECTRICITY IS STILL VOODOO! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

To quote another sea captain, Captain Binghamton of "McHale's Navy" fame, I could just scream! The short is not in the 110AC outlets. The only good thing about that is that when I went to LOWE'S, I didn't have the money to buy the GFI - Ground Fault Interrupter - outlets and it turns out that they were not needed! Disconnecting the white neutral wire from the outlets, rendering them non-functioning, allowed ABISHAG to plug into the dockside power and charge the batteries. Connecting the white neutral wire produced an immediate tripping of the dockside circuit breakers. The fault as it turns out is, by all current indications -no pun intended - in the inverter itself. This was indicated by the fact that the ground connection for the case showed a 80db resistance which indicates a short to the case on the inside. Could be a wire with broken insulating. Could be an extraneous single strand of wire that got inside during manufacturing. Could be a stray screw or washer or some metal part that is loose inside. Chuck had me go down inside the "In-Law Apartment" and disconnect the inverter "from the grid." Bizarrely, the 80db short disappeared when he went looking for it again with the inverter completely disconnected from everything. Re installing it did not reproduce the 80db's, but once again connecting the neutral blew the dock. Unfortunately, if I go south, there simply isn't enough time to send it to the manufacture for repairs. I am going to have to live with a system works to 2/3 of its functions. When I am off dockside power, I can reconnect the neutral and run the inverter and use the outlets. when I am on dockside power, I have to disconnect the neutral and the batteries get charged. What I can't do is do both with the neutral connected.

I also made another disturbing discovery that is sort of electrical. The propane system hasn't been working and I found out why. The propane system which runs the stove and oven, is fed off of two propane tanks set in a lock built into the deck. Two hose run from the tanks into a regulator to which propane flows. At the bottom of the regulator is a solenoid valve that controls the flow of gas from the regulator to the stove. The regulator is controlled by a monitoring panel that opens and closes the solenoid valve on command and which will also shut it off if it detects leaking propane inside the boat. This is a safety feature. Since propane is heavier than air, if it go into the boat it would sink into the lowest part of the boat - the bilge -awaiting a stray spark or flame and then blow the whole place to kingdom come. Following the torrential rains of "Hurricane Earl," something got into the propane locker and plugged the drain. I opened the locker and the water was up to the top. The propane regulator and solenoid are housed in the lock and as a result, the propane regulator and solenoid drown. It means that the propane system wasn't working because it was dead and so it is new regulator and new solenoid time! AH the Fun of boat ownership!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!