We spent the morning trying to get more messes straightened out. Open and put away over and over and over. Some progress was made, but we still have piles everywhere. It's looking a bit better. We even took a bunch of things off Zephyr and put them in the car to go back home with me.

About 1130, Tracy took off for the laundry to get all our clothes washed. I kept opening and labeling things as to what they were and where they go. Engine parts particularly. I don't want to forget what each part goes to. Now all I have to do is make notes as to where I put it when I need it.

Just after 1200, I walked over to the laundry to meet up with Tracy and have lunch. She met me half way and gave me a lift as she had the car. We ended up at one of the local eateries at the marina. Good food at decent prices. While we ate, the laundry got finished. Good timing.

After lunch, I started in on the electrical. We have lots of nice power on the Port side but none on the starboard side. Weird as we used to have power everywhere. I checked the wires for the outlet I put in in the back of the galley. It has always been hinky. It even melted one of the GFCI outlets I installed a while ago. I pulled some of the wires off the main panel and with volt meter in hand, attached them to different connections. Voila, we had power in the outlet and correctly wired power to boot. The circuit--at least that outlet--tested out fine. On the the rest of the outlets. Still no joy. I did figure out that while they indicated they were wired alright(neat circuit tester), there was only 65 volts in the outlet--not the 130 as usual. More work with the volt meter and after 3 hours working on it, I finally gave up. We even pulled out one of the old outlets to see what condition it was in. Not really that good. I'll be buying some new outlets tomorrow when I'm in Guaymas and changing them out.

After throwing in the towel so to speak, I headed off in search of an electrician that would work on boats. I was recommended to go talk to a guy named Luis. I found his shop but he was booked solid for the next week. Off again to Star Marine, one of the local big boys in San Carlos. I walked in and started talking to the service desk telling them my problem. "No problem, we have an electrician that can help". He was right beside me at the counter. I explained again the problem. He was all for coming out. "When?"was my question. "How about right now?" was his response. Say what!!!!!???? Right now??? How lucky could I get? Out he came and he went right to work checking the circuits right from the boat yard outlet all the way into Zephyr. Every splice and junction as well as the circuit panel and the outlets. Once he saw exactly what was going on, he pulled off one wire on the electric panel and moved it up two screws and we were done!! It was that simple.

While checking the switch box that Sea Marine installed--it's located just inside the hull where the electricity comes in. If there is a problem, there is where you can turn off all power coming into Zephyr. In the box were the "hot" wire, "neutral" wire and the "ground" wire. The hot and neutral continued in to tmain circuit panel but the "ground" wire stopped at the switch box. There is no "ground" wire going to the main panel!!! Then he asked the big question--"Have you been going through lots of zincs?" Those are the metal pieces we have been screwing to the prop and the rudder as well as dangling another big blob of it over board attached to the main grounding strap on the propeller. My answer was yes, we could go through one in a month or so. That's much quicker than we felt normal but since our boat had been rewired by an "certified ABYC electrician" we felt sure we were just fine. His comment was that when we were in the water attached to shore power, we were literally bleeding power into the water destroying not only our zincs but the zincs on other boats that sat nearby. To correct it, we have to run a ground wire from the switch box I mentioned earlier to one particular screw on the main electric panel and our worries will be over. Plus, we should no longer get shocked when we touch the main outlet where power comes into Zephyr and one of the lifelines. We've had that problem ever since we left Port Townsend. It doesn't happen all the time, just every once and a while. Now it should stop. Let's hope so. It stings!!

As to paying for his expertise, I'll find that out tomorrow. the shops computers were down. His bill is only for a 30 minute job. It won't be that bad and I really don't care as long as it solves all out problems.

I will be heading off for Guaymas tomorrow to pickup our two hatch panels I talked about earlier this week. The epoxy and fiberglassing should be done. I'm looking forward to seeing how they look.

I've posted a picture of the rudder and prop assembly so you can see the zincs I've installed to keep Zephyr safe from self destructing.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures aboard the good ship Zephyr and her faithful crew of four.