If It Wasn't For Bad Luck.....

My daughter and son-in-law came out to visit last week and we decided to go out for a day-sail on Friday.  It just happened to be Friday the 13th but I don't give credence to those kinda things.  At least, I didn't used to.

You see, it all started out good and went downhill quickly.  We departed the marina around 1330 and sailed out to the Bay under really great conditions.  Wind was blowing 12 to 18 knots out of the NNW so we cut across the Bay under full main and genoa, 6 to 7.5 knots the entire way on pretty much a broad reach.  We made such good time we decided to run to the end of Eastern Bay and then figure out what we wanted to do beyond that.  Anchor out?  Head home?

As we approached the entrance to Crab Alley Bay Cheri mentioned something about a loose line flapping around the mainsail.  Huh?  I looked up and saw the topping lift had parted from the end of the boom.  Again.  This happened once or twice before and I was really, really sure I had fixed it.  Guess not.  One time the line had actually parted, broken, so we replaced it with new stuff.  Another time the shackle came loose.

I had a snap shackle on there and thought that would work fine but I guess with the variety of stresses at this point it's not really a good place for a snap shackle.  I need to give this some thought and research a better fitting.  Duh.

We turned up into the wind, furled the genoa and fired up the engine to keep the boat pointed into the wind without making too much headway.  So the line is flying around about 15' off the deck.  I tried to snag it with a boat hook and with my arm fully extended it was about 2" short.  Chris, our son-in-law is about 6" taller than me so he got the next shot at it.  Still no go because with the wind and the waves the line was moving around too much.  We tried wrapping duct tape around the end of the pole with the sticky side out but that didn't work either.  It finally dawned on me to let the topping lift all the way out and pull the line up against the mast to stabilize it.  I climbed up onto the mast pulpit, held the snap shackle against the mast and finally slipped the boat hook through the end and pulled the line down to the deck.  Chris then reached up through the zipper in the Bimini and re-attached the topping lift to the end of the boom.  I think this whole operation took about an hour.  Seemed like a whole lot more though.

Since we wasted so much time playing around we decided to head back to the marina.  Had a wonderful return run, 8.3 knots heeled over at 15 degrees.  Flying!  By the time we got back to Herring Bay it was dark and the wind was blowing a steady 20 knots NNW.  Pulling into the slip required more use of the bow thruster than usual and just as we were about half way in it quit on a thermal overload.  Worse yet, all the lights and instruments started flashing on and off.  What the...?  I ran down below and shut off the breakers to prevent any damage and then resumed parking the boat.

Once we were in and got shore power connected I discovered we had no AC or DC power.  Huh?  We had power on one 30 amp circuit for the air conditioning but no power at the outlets.  When I checked the inverter controller I found a message saying the charger was dead.  It actually said that, that it was dead.  It was now going on 2200 so we broke out the flashlights and called it quits for the night.

The next day, Saturday, we had obligations to get together with family so I didn't get to work on this until later on Sunday.  I got out my DVM (digital volt meter) and started hunting down the problem.  No power at the DC panel.  No power at the main breaker.  I finally found 13 volts going into the big shut off switch for the house bank but nothing coming out.  That's gotta be the problem but it just doesn't make sense.  That switch is very simple, just a set of contacts on a rotating paddle.  What could go wrong?  I suspected this was the source of all our power problems but I wasn't sure about the "dead" inverter so I decided to have the dudes from MTS come take a look at it.  On Monday morning they called me and verified that the switch was bad but more importantly, they let me know that the inverter was OK.  Once they replaced the switch all power was restored with no other damage.  They didn't have an explanation for why the switch would have died but said they'd enjoy tearing it apart to find out.  Have at it.  Hopefully we'll have an answer next time I see them.

So my Friday the 13th was actually good and bad.  We had a great day of sailing with family and I truly enjoyed that.  The topping lift problem was a challenge but we all had fun trying to grab it and we enjoyed working on it together.  The power problem was a pain in the butt though.  We ended up going through the whole weekend without power, which also meant we had no water either.  Grrrrr.

Do I believe in good luck and bad luck?  No, not really.  It's more about about challenges I think, good or bad.  Of course, next time Friday the 13th rolls around I'll probably hide in a closet for the day and try to avoid some of those challenges.