Over the course of two days, we randomly smelled something. Mark finally identified it as melting plastic. We started combing through the section of the boat where the smell ever so gently tickled our noses.

Finally, late in the day, we realized it was our shore power plug. What’s that? Think of it as a beefy, all-weather extension cord that plugs the boat into the dock power. It’s the connection from the power line to your house, only for us, it’s a 25′ bright yellow cable, commonly referred to as an eel, that connects us to the electricity from the marina’s power pedestal.

Example of pedestal and shore power setup.

It’s not uncommon for marinas to have sketchy power…you know the whole water and electricity thing not mixing well. It happens. Will probably happen to us again one day.

I’ve included pictures of the melted inlet wires and as well getting see the backside of the shore power inlets which resides in the aft shower.

Luckily, Mark is good at electricity and we were able to locate one replacement locally. Just as the sun was setting on Feb 3–when we’d want heating and lights–Mark was able to finish the replacement job and poof, no need to head to a hotel.

We have three additional inlets on order for future failures.