Assistance in Ft Lauderdale

There is a set of breakers back near the glendinnings. The panel breakers will trip at 30A. I know because it’s not hard to exceed that with AC running and wife trying to use the stove or microwave. The amp gauges on the panel rarely exceed 25A. The genset provides 50A per leg but shore power only provides 30A per leg.

I talked to a marine electrician in Fort Pierce and he said reworking to 50A isn’t that big a deal. He said he would install a 50A receptacle and run 6ga from there to the existing panel. At the time he didn’t know the boat had isolation transformers. I would need to change the two 30A transformers to a single 240 50A or just eliminate the transformer.

This appears to be a fairly common problem. Lots of resistance in these plug contacts and resistance creates heat which translates to burned contacts.

A short term fix I came up with is to cut the plugs off the cables and adapter and hard wire using underground splice kits. Downside is that I will be committed to 50A, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. I haven’t seen a marina yet that didn’t have 50A.

The cables aren’t in the best shape. Kind of stiff and taped in one spot. Changing cables is on the short list. Unfortunately it not as easy as plugging in 2 new cables and has to wait till 1) I get home or 2) The problem becomes impossible to work around. Kind of wish I knew this was an issue while we were waiting out the storm in Fort Pierce.

I replaced an end on one of the cords today and it is copper. We are in Daytona now with reservations in St Augustine tomorrow. Might try to stay an extra day and try to either McGyver a solution (hardwire adapter) or see if I can change cords. Once we get north of Jacksonville, looks like parts will be harder to come by until Brunswick/Savanah.

I think you’re right on hard wiring the adapter. Going to see what f I can hit up a west marine in st augustine and grab some male and female connectors and change them all. I think the end game here is to lose the glendinnings and switch to 50A.

There are 2 transformers and 2 galvanic isolators. This boat does have a locker where the power exits. Also found out the CM4, what I have (2 of them), will not work with a 50A cable. The cost to upgrade the right way would be pretty high. A cable upgrade wouldn’t be too bad. Each leg would connect to the existing incoming breakers. Basically I’d still have a 2 x 30 boat but with a heavy duty cable. Also not likely to fit a CM7 where the CM4’s are now so the CM probably not an option.

Everything had been good since cutting back the cables and changing ends so I think I’m just going to replace the cables. I’ll go to 8ga if the CM4 can handle the diameter. I think it can.

So we ran outside from Amelia Island to Brunswick, GA at 18 kts burning 37 gph. Took about 2 hours. Then up the ICW to Savanah and anchored out. Thursday morning got up and made a short 4 hour run to Hilton Head and grabbed a slip at Harbour Town for 2 days. Headed out in the morning and probably run outside and see if we can make Charleston. Will run at 8.5 kts though. Forecast looks like 1ft@4sec. The ICW from here to Charleston has some sketchy spots. It’s doable, it a straight line at steady speed is faster than the trusts and turns with no wake zones.

Thanks for the guidance on the power issue guys. Looks like we’ll be fine until we get home where I can deal with it at my own dock.

I do have aquamap and the COE data has been helpful. Wife wants to inside through Beaufort. I’d rather set the AP for a relatively straight line up the coast. Wind and waves in the morning will dictate.

If we leave first thing in the morning it would be a falling tide and pit as the sketchy spots at around low tide.

AC on the bridge quit a couple days ago, but it hasn’t been crazy hot and have had a good breeze. Hoping it gets cooler the further north we get. Bugs haven’t been an issue.

ICW from Hilton Head to Charleston. I figured the ICW would take a lot longer than outside. Navionics route both ways showed only an hour longer to St John’s Island. Outside arrive at 5:30. Inside arrive at 6:30. We pulled in to the marina at 6:38. We did catch the tide in our favor most of the way.

Made it to Little River, SC. While doing a bilge check, I noticed that the AC strainer looked a bit nasty, so took it apart and found it fouled with this hairy looking growth to the point that I can’t explain why the AC was still pumping. It took a little while but got it cleaned out. Immediately noticed better flow.

Strange part is that the genset strainer is the same model and sits right beside the AC strainer, yet the genset strainer is clean. Only thing I can think of is the AC runs pretty much 24/7 while the genset only runs while underway, other than the few times we anchored out.

It’s been an experience. I’ve learned a few things….

1) Never trust a broker.

2) Survey will miss anything that’s not pretty obvious.

3) If you want to find everything he missed, run the boat 800 miles home on your maiden voyage.

4) Did I mention never trust a broker?


The ICW is very stressful. There were spots where we had a foot under the boat at high tide and we don’t draw a lot of water. Not too many stretches where you can just relax and enjoy the ride. Coming through Myrtle Beach we saw a really cool power cat kind of pulled over on the bank. About an hour ago Sea Tow brought him to the marina we are at. He hit a rock right in the middle of the channel and destroyed a prop and shaft.

I had my props done in Fort Pierce but still have a vibration right around 1050. Pretty sure it’s a shaft. If I hit something else it wasn’t hard enough to get my attention, but I guess it’s possible. Lots of junk floating down these rivers and very shallow with soft mud bottom. Going to get hauled as soon as we get home. The local yard will do the props, shafts and check alignment.

We went through at low tide. I remember the spot. Looked like a channel carved out of the rock. Diver said he had to retrieve a stabilizer from a 72 Hatteras right there. Got too close and tore off the stabilizer.