Dramatic Episode #4

 03 May 2015

One of the few concerns we had about "Well, Why Not?"  when we bought her was the extensive dependency on 110 v power.  The generator produces the electricity which in turn powers the stove top, the coffee pot, the microwave, the freezer, the refrigerator, the air conditioner and heater, and small appliances, though not all at once.   Imagine our frustration when the generator quit working!!  Fixing meals became rather challenging, keeping things cold became impossible where ice was unavailable.   For over a week we limped along with no generator.  Trying to keep everything cold with ice did not do much more than fill the fridge with water.  Gross, but remember we couldn’t use the shop vac because.. guess what? no generator and we don’t have a manual pump!   We do have an Igloo type cooler permanently attached to the aft deck (not sure why it was originally installed there) and in a moment of desperation (brilliance?) we removed the contents and added bags of ice.   Despite sitting in full sun, it worked amazingly well as long as we didn't put too much in it, remembered to open the plug and drain the water and bought ice everyday. It was way too much like camping and when we arrived in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon we were slightly grumpy.  Alex Miller of SeaTek to the rescue!!  He fixed the generator, but we realized that we needed a longer term solution.  
  

Alex working on the generator

Alex is a young man (from Minnesota, no less) and has built quite a reputation for excellent work, reasonable prices and sensible solutions.  So... we opted to have him and his cohort, Darren, remove our electric stove top and replace it with a propane stove and best of all, convert our freezer and refrigerator to 12 volt battery power. 

Darren cutting insulation for refrigerator

In the process Darren put in extra insulation to raise the bottom of the refrigerator and the freezer so that I can actually reach everything. No more sending Jim head first into the fridge! (See Post "Getting to Know You...." on Feb. 3, 2015.)

Darren relaxing after a hard day's work!

It is a relief that our galley is no longer 110v dependent.  The generator's only job now is to power the air conditioner/heater, recharge the batteries and provide the 110v power for charging laptops, phones, etc.  Any of that we can live without in case the generator gets cranky again.  

Alex surveying the finished project!!

So now we wait for a weather window to head back to Regatta Pointe Marina.