Today’s trip took us from Cape Charles northwest to the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. The winds were close to ideal, blowing 10-20 out of the south, so we gybed our way north under genoa alone. Tomorrow’s forecast is for northerlies; in fact, the northerlies are forecast to blow for at least the next four days, so we decided to take advantage of the southerlies while they lasted and sailed a little further north than originally planned.
Reedville is a guano based community. By processing “pogie” fish into guano and oil during the early 19th century, Reedville became one of America’s most affluent communities. Today, the business of grinding fish into fertilizer seems to have lost some of its glamour (only 1 of the original 8 plants still operates) and Reedville has become just another small waterside town. I was unable to obtain an internet connection, hence the delayed publishing of this post.
Once safely anchored we set about securing the boat, shutting down the generator/engine, and securing unneeded equipment. It was during this process that I found the refrigerator was broken; it would not turn when I closed the breaker, nor was there any response when I tried resetting the overload circuit on the compressor. Thinking that perhaps a clogged strainer had caused the refrigeration unit to overheat, I check the sea strainers (including the 3 non-refrigerator strainers as well). The refrigerator strainer was clean, but I did find a good deal of grass in the engine strainer as well as more grass and a small fish in the generator strainer. The fish resisted our efforts to flush him/her out, so I set about sucking out the dirty Reedville water with a turkey baster, basically just trying to get a good view of him so that I could grind him into small, water pump-friendly pieces with a blunt object. Luckily for him/her, he/she was sucked firmly against the tip of the baster allowing me to return the much-traumatized fish to the sea. By sparing the helpless creature I apparently earned some positive karma, because it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps the refrigerator was simply as cold as it was set to get, that perhaps the thermostat was preventing the compressor from kicking on. Sure enough, Dad turned down the thermostat and the refrigerator immediately sprang to life. Wow, what a good feeling it was to discover that operator error (stupidity) was to blame. After the generator nightmare of the last couple weeks, I suppose I am a little too gun shy, a little too ready to assume that every hiccup signals a catastrophic, wallet-crushing equipment failure. I should have known Alana would not let me down.
Once safely anchored we set about securing the boat, shutting down the generator/engine, and securing unneeded equipment. It was during this process that I found the refrigerator was broken; it would not turn when I closed the breaker, nor was there any response when I tried resetting the overload circuit on the compressor. Thinking that perhaps a clogged strainer had caused the refrigeration unit to overheat, I check the sea strainers (including the 3 non-refrigerator strainers as well). The refrigerator strainer was clean, but I did find a good deal of grass in the engine strainer as well as more grass and a small fish in the generator strainer. The fish resisted our efforts to flush him/her out, so I set about sucking out the dirty Reedville water with a turkey baster, basically just trying to get a good view of him so that I could grind him into small, water pump-friendly pieces with a blunt object. Luckily for him/her, he/she was sucked firmly against the tip of the baster allowing me to return the much-traumatized fish to the sea. By sparing the helpless creature I apparently earned some positive karma, because it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps the refrigerator was simply as cold as it was set to get, that perhaps the thermostat was preventing the compressor from kicking on. Sure enough, Dad turned down the thermostat and the refrigerator immediately sprang to life. Wow, what a good feeling it was to discover that operator error (stupidity) was to blame. After the generator nightmare of the last couple weeks, I suppose I am a little too gun shy, a little too ready to assume that every hiccup signals a catastrophic, wallet-crushing equipment failure. I should have known Alana would not let me down.
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