Disaster strikes

Fortunately, we're all alive and well and the boat is still floating.  Over the weekend, there was an apparent power surge (the light got brighter before it went out and that's the electrician's evaluation).  All of the power went out on the boat but no fuses blew and the breaker on the dock was also fine.  I found out later that there's an additional breaker on the individual plug-in too but it was also fine.  I figured there was a short somewhere and unplugged most of what I had plugged in, checked cords, felt the walls, couldn't find any burned or warmed spots.  I bundled up (it's the coldest time of the year) and tried to get some sleep eventually, but kept waking up to make sure everything was okay.  The next morning I started making calls:  Dan and Leila to let them know that the work on the floor that was supposed to start today needed to wait while the electrical got sorted out, a "boat guy" that a friend suggested, and a contractor I know to give me a referral for an electrician.  All my calls went to voicemail, so I was on hold.  I grabbed food and clothes and moved to the office to keep warm and busy.  Eventually, Leila got back to me first and told me she and Dan would run up from Tacoma to try to troubleshoot.  Quite a bit later I heard from the other two, but decided that, since I trust Leila and Dan, I would see what they could do first.

They started looking through and testing and found:  both ends of the big, fat boat plug were melted as well as a portion of the cord, the fuse box was blown and a portion of wire going into the fuse box was also burned and melted.

 We went out and got a new fuse box and all new fuses, boat cord and plug and installed all.  One portion of the boat is still not working and has to be re-wired but there's heat (some), lights, and a working refrigerator.  While we were working on all of this, we had some interesting conversation with the next door neighbor and her electrician who said he was finding the same thing on her boat.  Unfortunately for her, he did not repair her electrical and is coming back to do that.  It seems the rest of the dock is okay though.  It got down to 29 degrees last night and the boat was as cold as outside before we got the electric on again.  So, my little heater is working overtime.  I need to run two, but when I tried it, the breaker blew again.  I'll try again tomorrow morning.  So, we're all wearing heavy sweaters and making do.  New floors go in later this week and Leila and Dan with re-wire at that time.  I'm pleased that my computers made it through just fine.  So, all in all, it was just a big, expensive scare and inconvenience.  Today, ZhouZhou is acting sick so I hope she didn't catch a cold.

Someday there will be new walls with actual insulation so there won't be such a drain on the heaters when the temperature drops.  I can't wait.  In the meantime, there will be new floors and another wonderful set of stairs, this time at the back door where I really need them.  We'll see what I do with the floors once they're down.  It's a painting project, so with three dogs in a tiny area, that should be interesting.

But life goes on!