Sleeping in the comfort of a hotel room was nice, and the room offers an escape from the heat and sun while I’m starting to get the boat ready. On the old Zanshin I could manhandle the genoa and, if the winds were light, I could pull up the sail alone as well. On the new boat the genoa is too heavy to carry up from the cabin to the deck, so when the crew from Richardson’s Rigging came by I asked them to correctly retension my backstays (which I’d had to remove for the Travelift), then to help me get my genoa onto the furler and finally I decided to have a professional go up my rig to check everything. After they’d done that I started to see if I could get my shore-power cable attached so that I could work belowdecks during the day in air-conditioned comfort.
It turns out that the plugs used here on the shore-side for 50A have 4 strands – a ground, a neutral and two 125V ungrounded cables. The plugs on the boat side have just 3 cables – a ground, a neutral and a 230V hot cable. I checked that the difference between the 2 hot cables was 230V and kept the ground and used just the two hot cables and I did get a “reverse polarity” indication but the house power didn’t go on. I thought I might connect the 2 hot cables on the assumption that they might be in phase but decided to wait to consult with an expert before giving that a go. The simple connector to the shore power outlet runs in at a heavy $140 (just the plug, mind you. For another $25 one can purchase an up-sell waterproof housing). I knew that cable was pricey, but didn’t realize what I was in for when I purchased 2 shore plugs, the special boat side plugs were already aboard.
I did clean a bit of the deck and somehow the day was over and the showers beckoned prior to visiting the shore bar at Peg Leg’s again and I had a discussion about a local business opportunity with a local gent plus several Caribs and their excellent pizza.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |