Power Failure?

Out on a visit to The Key of Sea we noticed the AC panel light was yellowish in color indicating that there was no shore power into the boat. A boat tied to the dock can often be plugged into a shore power outlet, kind of like plugging something at home in using an extension cord. If the extension cord gets unplugged or its own power source fails, nothing works. And so it seemed with our boat. The tell tale was that our recently installed heaters designed to come on only when it got cold enough had a red indicator light which meant they were in that mode. Both indicator lights were off. We tried checking the shore power plug at the source and at the point it came into the boat. No problem. We clicked the circuit breakers on shore, off then on. No problem.

Circuit Breaker panels to the right and below the main helm.

We checked all the DC circuit breakers on board and those others on the AC panel. No problem. So could it be the shore power unit itself? Hmmmmmmm. In the meantime, having run out of time and ideas, I decided to call my broker from whom we are subleasing the slip, ask him to contact the Port of Bellingham and request they come out and check the power hook up. I flipped off all the circuit breakers on board except the bilge pumps in case that would make any difference. I called our broker and left a message. Monday morning I had a call waiting from his office. He had gone aboard the boat (he has a key since he could have to move the boat to a different slip on a moments notice) and checked things out. All seemed fine to him. Hmmmmm. Monday afternoon I drove over to the boat to check things out. As I entered the boat I noticed the red light aglow on one of the heaters. I went to the circuit board and began to turn switches I had turned off the day before to the on position. Everything was working fine. Hmmmm. So, is the issue that a circuit breaker kicked off due an overload from these heaters? The jury is still out, but as left the boat all systems were go. I'll go back and check on things this weekend and see if one or more of the circuit breakers is tripped. Perhaps we just have a breaker that needs replacing. Hmmmmm. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++