We are not in Penobscot Bay

Not only are we not in Penobscot Bay, we’re not even on Dumbledore. We are still land bound.

We took Dumbledore and his new alternator for a test run up to Little Bay (near Durham, NH) on Thursday and spent the night on a mooring up there. The alternator performed admirably. So why are we not out on Dumbledore? We were having electrical issues. These manifested in two ways. First, the old microwave that came with the boat had stopped heating things, at least not consistently. We figured it was old and wanted to replace it with a microwave/convection oven anyway, which we did. Dave installed it several days ago and used the microwave feature successfully. On our alternator test run trip on Thursday, the microwave did not heat his lunch, nor did it heat something I tried to warm later in the day. Yet that night the air fryer function cooked our sweet potato fries perfectly. Hmmm. Friday morning I tried to turn on the solenoid switch that turns the propane to the stove on & off. It worked fine the six days we were onboard in July, but Friday morning the switch wouldn’t even turn on (you turn it on, then push the gas button to turn on the flow). What the heck??

Long story short, Dave didn’t think it was a good idea to set off up the coast of Maine with wonky electricity, a sentiment with which I agree. He has never been pleased with the haphazard mishmash of wiring on Dumbledore anyway. He describes the wiring as abysmal; sometimes he calls it a “rat’s nest.” The picture above is only the wiring that’s not in the engine room. The wiring down there isn’t much better. Bottom line, for now he has ordered what he needs to create a monitored bus bar distribution system. It won’t solve all our electrical issues, but it will be an improvement that also provides data that will allow him to suss out additional problems, and it will be significantly safer. 

Looks like we won’t get our extended cruise up the coast of Maine this year, but we’ll eek out some time once this piece is taken care of, which he’ll tend to as soon as all the parts arrive this week.

I will keep you all posted. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Author: Indigo Lady

I am a retired educator married to a retired chemist/engineer/educator. We will be living aboard our solar electric catamaran for as long as possible. View all posts by Indigo Lady