Guided Discovery: Trouble in River City - Day 9

We had our first problem today. It started when I was brushing my teeth and the water would not flow from the fawcet. Immediately, I suspected the fresh water pump, which has been doing yeoman's duty since day one. Recall that we have lived on the boat for the last three summers and cruise it extensively.

In the process of trouble shooting the problem, I noticed that the water tank gauge showed a quarter full and decided to fill the tank. Note: The gauge is activated by a switch that lights up a vertical display that reads empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full. When I completed filling the tank, I activated the switch only to discover that it was not lighting up. I further discovered that port side breaker was off (no light) and that the entire 12 volt system that powers the "house" was dead.

A call to Phil at Skipper Buds in Northpoint Illinois, where we bought the boat and with Mike Walsh at Marine Services (Dolton, IL), where we store, and service confirmed an electrical problem related to the main breaker solenoid on the port side.

I found a local mechanic by pure luck who used to work as Alton Marina's technician. Bob immediatly went to work testing the circuits to confirm the problem, which could have been a breaker panel switch, the solenoid or the connection between the solenoid and the battery. Two hours later at 5:00pm we still were not sure if the problem was the solenoid or the connection.

Main Breaker Box - difficult to access

As I write tonight's article we have no 12 volt power. This means we have no water, no heads (toilets), no showers, no 12 volt lighting, no outside stereo and no outside hardtop lights. However, we do have 240 and 120 volt service. So the air conditioners, 120 lighting, the microwave and refrigerator which is dual 12 and 120 volts are all operational. The satellite TV control box and the TV are operational. However, the satellite dome is 12 volts and therefore we have no satellite TV. Hopefully at 8:30am we will resolve the problem with Bob and the help of our Chicago resources.

Meanwhile, a side story with a happy ending. When we leave the boat we lock the cabin. This time, through a series of errors, we managed to lock ourselves out of the boat. How could this have happened? Simple. As we were returning from our walk, I took our only marina key off my ring and gave the boat key, which is on a float, to Diana. Later, Diana took Kodi for a walk and closed (not locked the door). Unfortunately, due to a lousy Sea Ray design, the latch used to lock the door from the inside was activated and it caused the door to lock from the inside. To complicate matters Diana had left the key (and her phone) on the boat.

So now we had two problems. A dead house electrical system and we were locked out. So the marina gave us a local locksmiths number but we could only reach his answering machine. Not good. In desperation, I asked the marina if I could try keys from some of the Sea Rays that are resident at the Marina and bingo, after two trys, we found a key that worked. The of course is both good and bad news. The good news is that we were unlocked. The bad news is that almost any Sea Ray key will unlock our door adding to my contention that Sea Ray's lock is a lousy design.

This problem could have been avoided if we had obtained two marina keys when we checked in. We both resolved to do this in the future along with ALWAYS carrying our cabin key and cell phones. Still, a happy ending.

While all this was going on we met a couple with a dog on the dock and they asked if we had seen a "boat" called "The Rift Raft." Diana had but I had not. So I went to see this yacht that was bound for New Orleans with three guys, three gals and two dogs.