30 amps of power

I’ve mentioned electrics aboard. We have 30 amps of power running to our electrical panel and bad things can happen if the power needs go over that or have a big sustained draw. By “bad things” I mean tripping a breaker (which I have done), or overheating the circuits, or something else which is mysterious and ominous.

To be fair, our house in Columbus, Ohio also had 30 amp service. **authors note: we actually had 110amps of service to our Columbus house. This just illustrates that I still don’t pay attention. I didn’t give it any thought for three reasons:

1. The words “30 amps of power” had zero meaning for me.
2. There was no visual representation of the electrical panel in my living space.
3. The house couldn’t sink into the water.

So, here I am, looking obsessively at the ammeter. I moved on to a boat so I wouldn’t be bored. I’m not.

The one time I tripped a breaker I was using my hair dryer and turned it to “high”. I didn’t use the hair dryer for 6 months after that.

The reason for this post is that I had to get rid of my fancy schmancy blender. When we moved aboard I got rid of everything that I could possibly bear to part with including my KitchenAid stand mixer (sob) and Omega masticating juicer. I kept my food processor and BlendTec blender because, you know, smoothies and pie crusts…

The BlendTec blender can blend anything. The founder routinely and successfully blends up iPhones. I used mine to make marvelous green smoothies using the “xtr-lg smoothie” setting which automatically varied the speed of the motor to make sure everything was blended nicely.

This summer, when it was hot in the mornings, I decided that a smoothie would be just the thing for breakfast. Ingredients assembled, I flipped the switch and watched the ammeter needle fly to over 20 amps before bouncing back and forth between 10-15.

I sold it on Craigslist to a lovely girl who needed a second blender.

I now use a stick blender that draws around 3 amps. It makes a fine smoothie, takes up very little space, and, more importantly, won’t cause “bad things” to happen behind the electrical panel.

Oh, and I’ve figured out an amazing way to make pie crusts. It’s called by hand.
**thank you to Peter for pointing out my errors. It seems I could use an Editor.