21 January 2012

Tripping

It was a familiar feeling. Sitting there in the dark working away on my laptop doing some nonsense with pictures as usual.
Then the equally familiar feeling, Brrr, I feel cold.
I glance down at the heater. It's gone off. I glance over to the mains power switch.
Darkness.

Hmm. Which one of us has tripped the power off this time?
I arm myself with a big screwdriver to open the electric cupboard and my trusty headtorch. The brilliant  Black Diamond Head torch

The power had tripped off. No problem. I just turn all the boats off (three of us) and turn us back on one at a time to see which one has the problem.
Last time this happened it was the neighbour for a reason I couldn't work out so had to leve him switched off and tell the marina. This time. It was me.
Worried something was shorting out, I went inside and switched the mains power off inside the boat on the battery charger.
I tried again, it still tripped the power off.
I luckily still have the spare electric cable of the friendly fisherman in my anchor locker, so I by-passed my own cable and meter and went direct.
No problem. Power works fine.
So I unplugged my meter from my shorepower cable. S
SLOSH
ahahaaa.

Water had filled one end of the meter fittings and socket, eventually filling enough to trip the power out.
Thank goodness for trip switches.
I took the socket apart, water flowed out and left it to dry near the heater for a weekend.
It's now re-installed inside the anchor locker where it's kept out of the rain.

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