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Crusty Chief
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Good to know, thanks Nomad.
Inside Passage of Canada Trip
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Good to know, thanks Nomad.
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Crusty Chief
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Wait a minute less marinas???? Oh I am so going to whine next summer....
I'll just bring ya a good Cigar and a bottle of Scotch, that will reduce the whining!
Hi Guys,
Going to SE Alaska?
This should set the "hook" for you.
It is not a guide, but a realistic look at what the trip can be like.
Alaska Blues by Joe Upton
How good is it?
I fished commercially for close to 30 years, the sea gets into your
blood, addiction?
I have read this book in excess of 100 times since 1979. It shares
the rack with my log book.
Hope you enjoy it
Ted
Going to SE Alaska?
This should set the "hook" for you.
It is not a guide, but a realistic look at what the trip can be like.
Alaska Blues by Joe Upton
How good is it?
I fished commercially for close to 30 years, the sea gets into your
blood, addiction?
I have read this book in excess of 100 times since 1979. It shares
the rack with my log book.
Hope you enjoy it
Ted
Nomad Willy
Guru
Ted,
It's been published by others too but my father published that Upton book also. Yes I can recommend it w the same level of enthusiasm. I've read it at least twice.
For those not familiar w it it's a well written story about a guy and girlfriend starting out in Seattle (Ballard (Fisherman's Warf)). Going up the coast buddy boating like most fishermen do. They usually follow the fish generally moving north until it's snowing up the "big Lynn" (Lynn Canal) at Haines and Skagway. Great story and pics. Between openings they'd explore old canneries and places like Port Walter and Windham Bay. Great read.
It's been published by others too but my father published that Upton book also. Yes I can recommend it w the same level of enthusiasm. I've read it at least twice.
For those not familiar w it it's a well written story about a guy and girlfriend starting out in Seattle (Ballard (Fisherman's Warf)). Going up the coast buddy boating like most fishermen do. They usually follow the fish generally moving north until it's snowing up the "big Lynn" (Lynn Canal) at Haines and Skagway. Great story and pics. Between openings they'd explore old canneries and places like Port Walter and Windham Bay. Great read.
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Stout
Senior Member
John
Great post! Completed our first upNorth trip from Portland this year and plan on returning soon. Curious about your $33k trip cost. Was that for the trip expense itself or did that include your vessel upgrades too?
Kevin
Great post! Completed our first upNorth trip from Portland this year and plan on returning soon. Curious about your $33k trip cost. Was that for the trip expense itself or did that include your vessel upgrades too?
Kevin
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Crusty Chief
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Kevin, see post #26 above. What part of Portland are you docked at?
Retriever
Senior Member
I too was surprised by the $33k number, but this explains it. You'd still have a lot of those expenses if you were home...
My total costs for moorage and fuel for 3.5 months and about 3500 nm (Anacortes to Skagway and back) was in the $5-6k range.
Jay N
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Retriever said: "My total costs for moorage and fuel for 3.5 months and about 3500 nm (Anacortes to Skagway and back) was in the $5-6k range."
This is consistent with our $7k for 4.4 months and 3784 miles.
This is consistent with our $7k for 4.4 months and 3784 miles.
Alaskan Sea-Duction
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I'll just bring ya a good Cigar and a bottle of Scotch, that will reduce the whining!
Alaskan Sea-Duction
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We too made the trip this year..Anacortes to Juneau/Hoonah/Glacier Bay area and back. Departed early May and returned end of September.
I haven't run any numbers yet (and probably won't) but we spent a lot.
As stated the alcohol consumption seems to go up from "normal" levels...just can't explain it.
We stayed at a lot of docks..enjoyed the local restaurants and people. Some were good...some not worth a second visit. This increased cost-docks and restaurants and shore power.
Do all the preventive maintenance you can think of before you leave to minimize any repairs. Stuff gets real expensive when you get to Juneau.
As the marinas/floats/city docks in Alaska are upgraded they are required to add GFCI shore power. You need an isolation transformer for these. Only ones I recall currently were one of the harbors in Juneau and Petersburg (maybe Wrangell--can't remember for sure).
It's a great trip.
Doing it again next year.
Ken
I haven't run any numbers yet (and probably won't) but we spent a lot.
As stated the alcohol consumption seems to go up from "normal" levels...just can't explain it.
We stayed at a lot of docks..enjoyed the local restaurants and people. Some were good...some not worth a second visit. This increased cost-docks and restaurants and shore power.
Do all the preventive maintenance you can think of before you leave to minimize any repairs. Stuff gets real expensive when you get to Juneau.
As the marinas/floats/city docks in Alaska are upgraded they are required to add GFCI shore power. You need an isolation transformer for these. Only ones I recall currently were one of the harbors in Juneau and Petersburg (maybe Wrangell--can't remember for sure).
It's a great trip.
Doing it again next year.
Ken
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Crusty Chief
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Ken,
We hope to be heading north early May. Please stay in touch and maybe we can do a little Buddy boating alone with ASD.
Isolation Transformer, please elaborate?
We hope to be heading north early May. Please stay in touch and maybe we can do a little Buddy boating alone with ASD.
Isolation Transformer, please elaborate?
Alaskan Sea-Duction
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We were at Wrangell twice. I think they still have to upgrade the power. We stayed across from the fuel dock with 30 amp power. The locals say yep, 30 amp connection 15amp or less power. The Admiral couldn't run her hair dryer without the genny running.
Forewarning..I'm an electrical idiot.
As I understand it...our all knowing government requires Ground Fault circuits be placed whenever any marina, docks, etc are upgraded from current condition.
These are not compatible with most boats. I understand they "sense" current in and current out and if it varies by just a couple microvolts it assumes leakage somewhere (into the water I guess) and trips the breaker.
I have a fore and aft shore power plug and one person recommended I get an isolation transformer for each. I asked why we couldn't wire it into the One/Two/Gen selector switch and the response was...Hey, a good idea. That is what was done. That should have been a hint for me but I "needed" one.
Marine Isolators / Transformers / Boosters
As I understand it...our all knowing government requires Ground Fault circuits be placed whenever any marina, docks, etc are upgraded from current condition.
These are not compatible with most boats. I understand they "sense" current in and current out and if it varies by just a couple microvolts it assumes leakage somewhere (into the water I guess) and trips the breaker.
I have a fore and aft shore power plug and one person recommended I get an isolation transformer for each. I asked why we couldn't wire it into the One/Two/Gen selector switch and the response was...Hey, a good idea. That is what was done. That should have been a hint for me but I "needed" one.
Marine Isolators / Transformers / Boosters
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Crusty Chief
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Jeezzz
I could be the poster guy for electrical idiot! Am I missing something here or is this GFI improvement requirement raising the incoming working voltage from 120 AC to 210 AC ? I looked at the link you supplied, and it appears the portable unit and the hard mounted unit both convert incoming power from 210 to 120.
I don't want to have a ASD moment and burn up appliances because of my ignorance. ( Tom, I'm not saying your ignorant , just using your experience last year as an example) Help a brother out please!
Sounds like something we would like to do.
Best I know- everything is 120V coming from the shore side.
As for the link I didn't look at the individual items--just provided it for examples of Isolation transformers without much inspection on my part.
Retriever
Senior Member
Petersburg North Harbor and Juneau are the only places I've run into the GFCI issue. But the issue is likely to become more widespread, since any new docks must have GFCI.
Many boats (including mine) work fine on GFCI protected shore power. It's only if there's AC current leaking that you'll have a problem. You can check for this by using a clamp on ammeter around your shore power cord. If you see anything other than 0, you have a problem. Not sure how sensitive a meter you need to use, though.
Many boats (including mine) work fine on GFCI protected shore power. It's only if there's AC current leaking that you'll have a problem. You can check for this by using a clamp on ammeter around your shore power cord. If you see anything other than 0, you have a problem. Not sure how sensitive a meter you need to use, though.
Alaskan Sea-Duction
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Jeezzz
I don't want to have a ASD moment and burn up appliances because of my ignorance. ( Tom, I'm not saying your ignorant , just using your experience last year as an example) Help a brother out please!
What now wait a minute!!!! I was worse than ignorant, I was a dumba$$! I plugged into 50amp, 250Vac is what I did. Blew up the microwave. In the process of installing it now.....
As far as isolators/protection I haven't done much research on it. I was looking at digital meters for AC and the gage has an alarm on it if you exceed 120Vac....
Tom
How was it possible to plug a 120 v shore plug into a 240v receptacle? The diameter of the circle of contacts is supposed to be different. significantly bigger for 240v than for 120v...simply wont fit.
How was it possible to plug a 120 v shore plug into a 240v receptacle? The diameter of the circle of contacts is supposed to be different. significantly bigger for 240v than for 120v...simply wont fit.
C lectric
Guru
What now wait a minute!!!! I was worse than ignorant, I was a dumba$$! I plugged into 50amp, 250Vac is what I did. Blew up the microwave. In the process of installing it now.....
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How was it possible to plug a 120 v shore plug into a 240v receptacle? The diameter of the circle of contacts is supposed to be different. significantly bigger for 240v than for 120v...simply wont fit.
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Somebody monkeyed something. Not only the contact circles are different but the actual contacts are different configurations, shapes and sizes.
Koliver is right. There is no way that you should have been able to do that. There are specific receptacle/plug combinations for each voltage/current/phase type.
If your cord plug end is original then the dock electrical supply has been haywired. That can be downright dangerous and deadly.
Too many people haywire electrical stuff and think because they got away with it , it was ok.
Yes, I was an electrician and have see to much of this nonesense. NOt that no one other than an electrician can do a good job and not that some electricians never do crap work but what happened to you is inexcusable.
If you didn't complain and loudly then you should or one day someone could get killed.
For that reason , among a few others, I always use my voltmeter on the pins to check the actual voltage to ensure that at least the voltage is what I expect. Maybe under load it won't stand up but at least one possible problem is eliminated.
If you can find out if there is an electrical inspector that can be notified as I'm not kidding, that could have been deadly.
Glad it was only the microwave.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How was it possible to plug a 120 v shore plug into a 240v receptacle? The diameter of the circle of contacts is supposed to be different. significantly bigger for 240v than for 120v...simply wont fit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somebody monkeyed something. Not only the contact circles are different but the actual contacts are different configurations, shapes and sizes.
Koliver is right. There is no way that you should have been able to do that. There are specific receptacle/plug combinations for each voltage/current/phase type.
If your cord plug end is original then the dock electrical supply has been haywired. That can be downright dangerous and deadly.
Too many people haywire electrical stuff and think because they got away with it , it was ok.
Yes, I was an electrician and have see to much of this nonesense. NOt that no one other than an electrician can do a good job and not that some electricians never do crap work but what happened to you is inexcusable.
If you didn't complain and loudly then you should or one day someone could get killed.
For that reason , among a few others, I always use my voltmeter on the pins to check the actual voltage to ensure that at least the voltage is what I expect. Maybe under load it won't stand up but at least one possible problem is eliminated.
If you can find out if there is an electrical inspector that can be notified as I'm not kidding, that could have been deadly.
Glad it was only the microwave.
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ASD said:
Tom, you might take a second look at your power panel. On my boat I have 50A 240V and 50A 120V. If the only shore power available to me is 50A 240V I can flip the master switches on my panels so they will take that 240V and power and split it magically to power both the 240V and 120V systems.
I looked at that isolation transformer. For my usage, rather than buy an isolation transform that costs over a grand, I'd just run my genset. It's quiet enough that you don't even hear it from the dock and it would NEVER use enough fuel to offset that $1,000 cost. But then, I'm a cheap Bustard.
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Crusty Chief
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Mike,
I was thinking along those same lines! Your a pretty fart smella, and besides, it's just another system to stay on top of, and I already got enuff of those!
I was thinking along those same lines! Your a pretty fart smella, and besides, it's just another system to stay on top of, and I already got enuff of those!
Alaskan Sea-Duction
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I don't know, but it fit........ dummy me...
garrobito
Senior Member
In order to avoid this kind of problem, I suggest install an AC voltmeter before AC switch selector. With selector on "off" attach AC line to shore, go down and check with voltmeter if you have the right voltage/polarity, etc. then move switch to shore position in order to feed the boat...
Did the 33K include any mortgage or insurance or was the figure your unit cost of your adventure?
Heck, I went on a cruise to Alaska, went to Denali, caught and sent home 120 pounds of Halibut and in 14 days spent $11K . License for two, two charters, tips, processing..
Ranch hand @ $20, car at the airport $18 it all adds up
I would do it again in a heart beat.
Heck, I went on a cruise to Alaska, went to Denali, caught and sent home 120 pounds of Halibut and in 14 days spent $11K . License for two, two charters, tips, processing..
Ranch hand @ $20, car at the airport $18 it all adds up
I would do it again in a heart beat.
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Crusty Chief
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No mortgage (boat right?), it's paid for. But did include the annual insurance payment.
Since returning we have spent even more on a few maintenance items, new sanitation lines, a real good wax/polish and a couple improvements like the new force 10 stove and another fridge (this one was covered under the warrentee.
Still gotta haul out and check the bottom, anodes and PSS seal as well as some main engine improvements.
Nothing cheap about boats, and I thought the Harley's were expensive.
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