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<\/p>\nIndiscretion, our Nordhavn trawler, has a Maretron onboard computer system which monitors most of the vital components aboard the vessel. From a display at the helm or master stateroom, I can review the wind speed outside, fuel, water and holding tank levels, state of the batteries, engine temperature, rudder angle, water depth, etc.<\/p>\n
The system even has cell service and can text me when some parameter falls outside of normal, like this text I received at 2 am, indicating a low battery:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let me say this first: I think it\u2019s damn cool that my boat can send me a text. Second, I\u2019m a heavy sleeper, and I didn\u2019t receive this until I woke around 6 am. By the time I arrived at the boat 15 minutes later, the batteries were critically low.<\/p>\n
I spent all morning checking shore power connections, contorting my body into various electrical cabinets and lockers, trying to figure out why the boat wasn\u2019t connecting to power. I started the generator to charge up the batteries to buy time. I searched the internet and the Nordhavn owners group forums. I calculated how long I could run the generator before running low on fuel. I began to grow desperate.<\/p>\n
Lisa called at noon.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you figure out what\u2019s wrong?\u201d She asked. Her voice sounded perky and rested.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet. Did you need something?\u201d I wanted coffee and answers \u2014 not more questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you look in the owner\u2019s manual? They have some pretty good instructions on the electrical system,\u201d she offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d I said. \u201cOf course I looked at the manual. And the Nordhavn Owners Group. And I\u2019ve searched everywhere on the internet. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s wrong. The damn charger\u2019s probably broken,\u201d I sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want me to come down there and help you?\u201d She asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She could probably hear me banging a cabinet door shut, and sensed I wasn\u2019t in a talkative mood. She let me go.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I hadn\u2019t looked in the owner\u2019s manual. Who does that? Since I had run out of better ideas, I pulled out the thick binder from its resting place under the pilothouse settee. I flipped through the book until I found the electrical section, and my\u00a0eyes were\u00a0drawn to a bolded typeface section describing a set of A\/C breakers in the master stateroom\u2019s medicine cabinet. One of these breakers was tripped. I would never have found this hidden panel in my haphazard search. Once reset, everything came back to life.<\/p>\n
I had a couple more late night texts from the boat over the following week, each easily resolved, but I still didn\u2019t know what was tripping the system. It turned out I had plugged our winter space heater into a different outlet during a cabin cleaning session which had trouble handling the voltage and would intermittently trip the breaker. Once I changed outlets, the texts stopped coming.<\/p>\n
Lesson: read the manual. And buy your first mate flowers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indiscretion, our Nordhavn trawler, has a Maretron onboard computer system which monitors most of the vital components aboard the vessel. From a display at the helm or master stateroom, I can review the wind speed outside, fuel, water and holding tank levels, state of the batteries, engine temperature, rudder angle, water depth, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maintenance"],"yoast_head":"\n