Forgive my ignorance, but this is my 1st boat with shorepower and when i turn my battries off and the shore power is plugged all my cabin and cockpit lights will still work... normal ??? but if i use alot of lights or if i turn on the docking lights everything goes out till i turn the battries back on????

Maybe they're running off of the charger? It might be hooked up to the house side post of the battery switch, not the battery side. I'm not sure how they're supposed to be wired, but I know my charger is hooked to the same posts as the battery supply cables. The charger supplies 30-40 amps total, so the output side breaker might kick when you get a certain amount of load on it...