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With a casual, "Oh, isn't that the slip with the wires pulled out?" James had informed us that our current slip, which we'd fought hard to keep, didn't have power. For the love of... pasta. When we inquired when they would be fixing that, he told us that it wasn't scheduled till the time that they replaced the docks there. As there had already been 5 years since those docks were condemned, I wasn't going to hold my breath. "What if hypothetically, someone bought the parts and repaired it themselves?" I asked. Giving the expected response, James replied that the state wouldn't look kindly on that.

In fact, we weren't the only boaters dealing with the poor maintenance of the electrical hookups. Several power stanchions around our boat had similar problems. Wires dangled dangerously out of the sides of power stanchions. Rainwater could get in through missing lids to the tops of the stanchions. Excessively long extension cords powered boats from a stanchion a couple boats down.

Grimacing at the wires dangling from our power stanchion, I plotted what to do. Eric helped out by going a couple boats down to Fast Forward and asking if we could share their power. We'd previously been neighbors when we were in slip 778. At that time we'd watched Fast Forward get a new mast under new owners. Now, Fast Forward was in slip 785, with their brand new mast snapped in half after an attempt to kedge off a reef using the mast. Eric offered a nominal fee to borrow power from them, and they agreed. Thus, after running a couple of very thick 30A marine extension cords, we had power again... until the next morning.

The next morning we awoke to hear yelling and I noticed our electrical devices chirp off as our power supply vanished. "What now?" I groaned. Eric went outside to check on the commotion and electrical disruption. The irate guy out there yelled at Eric, "Well that's what you get..." and so forth. That person eventually left, but shortly thereafter Ron Dubois, a boat broker from the Ala Wai Boat Brokerage, showed up and started giving Eric trouble. However, Ron calmed down as he learned we weren't at fault.

Our boat in 783, and the boat in 784 were supposed to use the same power stanchion between us, which was out of order. Thus, the boat in 784 had power enabled for the power stanchion for boat 785, where Fast Forward resided. Additionally, the expensive power splitter from the boat in 784 was missing. Fast forward had probably entered their slip, and had done the natural thing of assuming that they could hook up to the power stanchion provided for their slip. It was unclear whether Fast Forward was paying for the power or the owner of the boat in slip 784. Since the power stanchion was designed for slip 785, then Fast Forward seemed to be entitled to the power. However, the boat owner in slip 784 had been paying for the power. Its possible that Fast Forward had transferred the power account to theirs, which they were entitled to do since they occupied the slip. It sounds like someone had screwed up bad somewhere.

Perhaps the power stanchions are first come first serve. If so, then the boat in slip 784 was entitled to the power since they arrived first and enabled the power. If the stanchions are designated to the slips, then the boat in 785 is entitled to the power and could sell us power if they wanted to. I have two theories. The first theory is that Fast Forward had pulled into their slip and discovered they had power, cheered, and hooked up. The second theory is that Fast Forward pulled into their slip and called the power company to switch power over to their name. The power company then calls the harbormaster's office and ensures that that boat is in that slip and thus entitled to the power. The harbormaster's office confirms that fact. The electric company switches the power account to Fast Forward's owners. A magic leprechaun disconnects boat 784 from 785's power stanchion and steals the power splitter.

In the end, it seemed that the boat in 784 got its power back, and everyone else got the shaft. We were without power once again. Eric chatted with another neighbor, Rebecca, down in slip 789. She was willing to let us hook up power to her. She shared power with her neighbor and only needed power part of the day for her, and part of the day for Richard. Despite all of the delightful problems of coordinating who could get power when, the major problem of getting power to our boat, 4 boats down, remained. With a borrowed power cable from Jerry, we strung three 50 ft. heavy gaughed 30A power cables together bridging the gap between our boat and Rebecca's power stanchion. Finally, we had some power, except when someone else needed it.

Rebecca wanted to have the power company enable her side of the power stanchion, which had several wires hanging from it. She doubted they would do it with it looking unsafe. Similarly, I wanted the power company to enable my power stanchion, though it was in a similar state.

Thankfully at that time, a magical angel floated down from the heavens with an electrical toolbelt in hand. No, the harbormaster had not sent an electrician. Some concerned party in all of this had decided to take matters into his/her own hands. With deft dexterity, he wired the stanchion outlets in both our slip and Rebecca's slip. With liberal amounts of duct tape, wire nuts, and parts triage, the components made their way into place. With a donated chunk of wood from Fast Forward, some quick drilling, and a dab of adhesive the stanchion for our boat had a lid to keep the rain out. Duct tape covered the disabled side of the power stanchion to our boat, which had donated parts and screws to keep the other stanchions in operation. All the wires were safely capped and wire tied. Whoever did this kind act did a professional job earning much gratitude from the boaters of the ala wai community.

Rebecca had scheduled the HECO power company to turn on her power the next day. With our repaired stanchion, we called to have our power turned on. "Thank you for holding, your call is very important to us." I heard time and time again. The recording repeated over and over telling me how I could save power by installing compact florescent light bulbs, and save water by fixing drips. After forty-five minutes I had drawn a pentagram around the cell phone and was just starting an incantation to send demons down the line to the operator, when the operator picked up the phone. I asked to have our power turned on. She clicked away at her computer and put me on hold.

Staring at the phone, I contemplated throwing the phone into the vast ocean, but she came back only five minutes later. She informed me that I needed to have my landlord sign a form that authorized me to use the power. "Excuse me? We've enabled power at several slips here before and never had to do that." I responded. She admitted it was an anomalous situation, but refused to give any further details. I pointed out that I did not have a landlord as it was a state marina. We eventually figured out that she wanted the harbormaster's permission to enable power for our slip. HECO wanted to fax a form to be signed to our 'landlord' but of course they didn't have the harbormaster's fax number. I tried, but failed to find the phone number for the harbormaster's office. Eventually, I sighed and told her I'd have to call her back, choking back tears. I called the harbormaster's office and explained the situation, obtaining the office fax number in the process.

Thus, I called back and waited another 40 minutes for the operator to pick up. Eric reasoned that it'd be quicker just to walk the 2 miles down the road to HECO's main office. However, I persisted. Eventually I got in touch with a friendlier operator who was more informative. I had feared that HECO had some record showing that our power stanchion was in disrepair and ineligible for power. However, HECO merely needed confirmation that we were actually in the slip and entitled to the power. Aha! A light bulb went on in my head. All that recent drama with the boats in slip 784 and slip 785 had rippled up to HECO and someone somewhere got hell for giving the wrong boat power. I gave the operator the fax number for the harbormaster and she said she'd fax the form into the office.

Eric and I walked over to the office and met harbor agent Dave there. He found the fax, and scratched his head at it a bit. The wording of the fax bothered him a bit. It said something about needing a landlord's signature, and probably absolved HECO from any disputes. Eventually he went and had Ken Chee sign the paper and faxed it back to HECO.

With that taken care of, we had HECO come out the next day to turn on the power. When explaining the drama to my master's advisor, Dr. Nancy Reed, she said plainly to me, "Of course, HECO is a four letter word."