We lest Reid Harbor early, but not until we did a pump out. We pulled up to this aluminum craft. I started looking for a switch to turn the system on. On no! This thing is operated manually! You have someone hold the hose over the hole and you push and pull this long handle! It didn't take long but man it seems this Island want to kill us with hills and manual pumps!!!
After we pumped we called Canadian Customs. This was the first time we called, so they wanted a lot of information about the boat. Didn't want the Nexus card number, but wanted our passport numbers instead. I truthfully declared the amount of alcohol on boat, which was above the limits. But I have a well stocked bar! All the bottles were open and about 3/4 full. He chewed on me a bit and then told me he would let me off with a warning. I told him I need to by scotch any way. We got our number and we were cleared into Canada! I went to the bow and unwrapped my Canadian flag!
I contacted Seattle Traffic to get clearance to cross Haro Straits. They cleared me and told me to contact Victoria Traffic, which I did. We were cleared into Sidney. It was about an 1/1/2 or so trip.
Called Port of Sidney Marina and they assigned me G-27. The entrance to this harbor is very narrow and I doubt two big yachts could pass each other, so I laid on my horns for a bit. There were two gentleman that met us and help us tie up.
Being STUPID!!!!!
After I got the boat all nice and secured, I do like I always do and hook up shore power. They had 50 amp connects, so no worries! I have my own 50 Amp 120Vac adapter to reduce it from 50 amp to 30 amp. I was quite proud of myself as I had picked this up in Friday Harbor. It was a little hard to connect, but I managed to get it to work. Went on the boat, flipped the breakers and turned everything on. Within minutes, Kay and I were standing in front of our TV and we heard a "pop", then smoke started pouring out of my sound bar for the TV! What the #$#$? I shoved Kay out of the way opened my electrical cabinet door and saw the volt meter pegged at 150Vac! Crap, I threw all the breakers off, ran out side to the electrical pedestal! I started to look more closely and there was a sticker, although very faint that stated "50amp/250Vac"!!!!! My stomach suddenly fell to my feet and I almost threw up. I found a 30amp/120Vac plug in across the dock and plugged in. I went inside to asses the damage. Not too bad as the end result could have been the boat catching fire! I lost the sound bar, the microwave and a fried portable battery charger I had plugged in downstairs in the engine room. Kay wanted a new convection oven anyway, so that is on the list for this winter remodeling. The next day, the marina told they have an adapter to reduce the voltage to 120Vac. Now you tell me!!!!!! Beware if you come to Sidney.
I also added an additional 40amp fixed mount battery charger to power my house battery bank #1 and the 30amp charger will now charge battery bank #2. I found out that 30amps just wasn't enough to keep both banks charged up.
 |
| The manual pump out in Reid Harbor |
 |
| Sunset at Sidney |
No comments:
Post a Comment