We've got power!
11 August 2013 | Oceanview Marina
Cloudy and sprinkles
It happened this afternoon. I was up at the club house doing laundry(trying to help Tracy) when she came up and told me there were two electricians on board Zephyr. One was the second electrician(knows a bunch about boat electricity) and his friend that knows a bunch about electricity. As promised they showed up and wanted to solve our problem and maybe the marinas.
Out came the volt meters with their wire probes and in we went. Power from the dock--check. Power at the wire that comes from the outlet--check. Power from the step down transformer--check. Power inside the boat--"reverse polarity" all over again. OK, back to the wires and probes. Each power outlet was checked and double checked. We found that the adapter that comes out of the step down transformer had power at all three prongs!! 110, 110 and 110, all trying to come inside the boat--BAD! They took the plug apart. By now, we had the two electricians, the manager of the marina, myself, Mike(another cruiser that has been helping us) and Tracy sitting just outside the cockpit. It was s full house. Once the plug was dismantled, they could find no problems. Tried the outlet on the step down transformer and it was active on all three prongs. It wasn't the adapter that changes the plug configuration for a standard plug to a Marinco (big round plug that twists and lock in another special outlet on boats). Another piece off the checklist.
We disconnected the ground wire from the female outlet at the end of the extension cord from the dock. Checked the outlet again on the step down transformer and it still showed 110 out of all three prongs. From what the electricians deduced, out step down transformer(made in the US) MUST have an active ground wire attached. The Philippines don't use an active ground system. Just two wire with each carrying 110/120 volts to make it 220/240 volts at the end. With no Ground from shore, the third winding inside the step down transformer grabbed what ever it could so it could function and that was to latch onto 110 volts. Charton(manager of the marina) volunteered to go get a spare step down transformer from his shop. It only has a two prong plug, not a three as mine has. We set it all up and plugged it in and voila, no more "reverse polarity" on my circuit board. We turned on the appropriate switches and everything came right on, no fuss no muss and no sparks. We were set to go. Again, like our boat, our step down transformer is too advanced for the electrical system in the Philippines. It needs a ground to work properly. That's why it had worked just fine in Fiji as they have an active ground system.
So, Charton is loaning us his step down transformer for a while, but I will still be buying another one just in case we run into this again in another country. You never know what you will run into out here.
The picture was taken by Tracy of the gang in the cockpit.