Process of Elimination
Our electrical problems are NOT caused by:
- Grounding out at low tide (because we trip the breaker at high, low and mid tides)
- The cable (because our neighbour used our cable just fine to power his boat)
- Bilge water shorting the internal cabling when we move (because we pumped out the bilge to a near-dry state and we’re still tripping out)
So the only other thing we can think to try next is to eliminate the internal cable that runs from the plug on the outside of the boat, down across the bilge and up to the ceramic fuses & such in the under-saloon storage area. It’d only be temporary, but if that works, at least we’d know what the problem IS and not just what it is NOT.
In further plumbing news, James’s dad has worked out that we did not run out of water, but had an air lock, which he was able to clear by releasing some valves. It doesn’t fix our problem of not knowing how to fill the tanks without overflowing into the bilge, but it does delay it a bit, which helps.
And last night we spent our first night on the boat in our final mooring, drinking our reserved bottle of 1999 6 putonyes Tokaji we bought in Budapest last summer specifically for the purpose. The candlelight was electrically, and not romantically, linked.
meltie, 11 April 2007, 11:47:
Have you tried plugging into a different breaker on the pontoon for a while? Perhaps you’ve got a cranky old one there too…
James, 11 April 2007, 12:04:
Yes, we’ve tried a few different things now including a different cable and different breakers on the collar barge. We ran the bilge pump last night off a reel of 13-amp on a separate breaker, but we’ve also tried that breaker with a reel of 13-amp and a 32-amp adaptor to bring shore power to our side connector and it trips out again.
meltie, 11 April 2007, 16:15:
Yeek. What’s the next step? Pulling fuses on the boat and testing each subsystem individually?
Steve, 11 April 2007, 23:31:
Have you had a chance to clamp the cable yet? How much current are you drawing?
Mom, 12 April 2007, 01:37:
Congratulations on finally being able to spend your first nights in your first home!
James, 12 April 2007, 11:13:
Meltie – we’ve got a bit further. I’ll write an update later today.
Steve – not yet. Dad’s over there today taking another look at the distribution panel. He’s making noises about bypassing it completely and putting in an RCD on the boat side instead. That would at least speed up diagnosis because we wouldn’t have to clamber out onto the collar barge to reset things every time.
Sandy – thanks! Your cards were the first bit of email we got at our new address, and they have pride of place on the bar.