Sailing Away on MARA BEEL: Everything on a boat is broken....

The last 3 days have been interesting here on the Mara Beel. And frustrating. Hopefully things are now resolved. First, there was the issue with our 14 month-old refrigerator. The last few times we anchored overnight we noticed its dedicated battery was not keeping up. The battery slowly lost its oomph and the fridge would not run properly. It works fine when we are connected to shore power. After detailed analysis and testing (and I’m talking hours here), Mark and John concluded that the 11 month-old 4D battery was at fault. They went out and bought 2 smaller, lighter 6 volt batteries – 60 pounds each instead of a single battery weighing over 100 pounds. Same amount of amps, but deep cell batteries. This particular battery is located under the fridge, deep under the galley floor- no easy task to hoist it out of there! They succeeded in removing it, moving it up 4 steps to the deck. Eventually one of the other boaters here helped lower it from the boat into a cart to our rental car to return it to the store.

Problem solved, right? Not so easy. The fridge still wouldn’t run on battery power. More about that later. It was about this time that the microwave began to kill all power to the house side of our electrical system. (Our electrical has 2 parts- 1 30- amp cord runs the house and another runs our 2 heating/cooling systems.) They are usually connected to shore power with a 50-amp splitter. This is a new problem that we’ve not had before. This is really turning into a fun day(s). More hours of discussion, analysis, testing, re-testing, more discussion. More analysis, more testing. One side of the splitter is much hotter than the other. Switching the 30-amp cords does not seem to make a difference. Conclusion: the 50-amp splitter is the problem. Another trip to West Marine to purchase a new splitter. Replacing the end of one of the cords. By now I have lost track of what happened when- it all became a blur. I can’t even begin to describe all that the guys pondered, tried, and re-tried over the course of 3 days.

Still having problems. Connected our power cords to the pedestal on the other side of the dock. Everything worked perfectly. Called the marina office. We were not allowed, understandably, to run our cords across the walkway where they would be a tripping hazard. They concluded they needed to send an electrician to check this out. On a Naval Air Station, a power pedestal in their marina is not a high priority, so were were instructed to move Mara Beel to a different slip on a different dock. We did that speedily, but we were almost uninvited to the St. Paddy’s party on C Dock because we were now residents of A Dock. That would have been tragic! Anyway, the electrical problem was resolved- the power pedestal on the dock was bad, and we have a new splitter.

Meanwhile, the fridge and its battery were still not friends. Couldn’t find much helpful information anywhere. Mark called another boater who had experienced similar problems. He told us about a 15-amp fuse on top of the unit. To access it, the guys had to remove the molding around the outside of the fridge and pull it out. Another trip to West Marine to buy the fuse. (We had every size but that one on board, of course.) Knock on wood, cross your fingers, it seems to have done the trick. The Norcold and its batteries are best buddies. We probably didn’t need a new battery, but oh well.

Mark and John replace the fuse

John thought he was coming aboard for a week of vacation- we really fooled him!! He has been invaluable in getting these crazy problems solved- thank you, John! It just proves that the old adage is true- everything on a boat is broken- you just don’t know it yet!

We managed to have some fun in the midst of this craziness. I did the laundry. Wait- that was not exactly fun. We did attend the St. Paddy’s party on “Bravo Zulu”, a gorgeous yacht here. Everyone in this marina is former military, (as is John) so the stories are much different than what we typically hear. In fact, the man that helped move our heavy battery is a retired 3-star general!

St. Patrick's Day party on Bravo Zulu

Today we had a Vessel Safety Check by a Power Squadron member- another retired 3-star general! We passed with flying colors. We then enjoyed lunch with friends in Key West at a great restaurant- Salute! on the beach. Joan hired me as an online instructor way back in 1999, and developed and runs THE best online program for teachers, based at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.