More electrical problems.

So, when I started this journey back in Mallorca, my batteries had 13.6V of charge. Today, they were down to 9.8V, even though I spent countless hours at night connected to shore power. I tried to debug the problem, but the voltmeter I have turns out to be utterly useless: it has a scale from 0-10V or else 0-50V. I need to tell apart 12V from 14V. The 0-10V scale is useless because the values exceed what the voltmeter can show, and the 0-50V scale is too big to register the difference between normal 12V and charging 14V. This makes me want to get on a plane to wherever my voltmeter was designed and connect the designer to a house main supply until he promises not to be so terrible at his job. Anyhow, I finally threw in the towel and called a professional. Using his digital voltmeter, he found the problem in no time: the ground wire from the charger had gotten split, so it was connected by a tiny strand. It seemed connected, but it couldn't carry much power.

Then he did a very makeshift repair where he just crimped the cable where it was split, charged me 25€, and left. Luckily, I stuck around a bit to notice that the wire had other major issues and was overheating like a common household heater. If I had walked away, I'm sure there would have been a fire on board. I found that an entire 3-foot section was corroded and black. I ripped out 9 feet of the wire and replaced it with 18 gauge, thick, brightly copper-colored wire. Left the battery connected overnight and we're back to 14.4V! Great success, but it did cost a day, in a town with almost no Internet connectivity.