Little Wins (Or Maybe Not Quite So Little)

Our trip to explore the Chesapeake foundered on the rocks of high wind and other inclement weather--thankfully they were virtual rocks. And our fallback--a trip into and back out of the Dismal Swamp, which is closed to through traffic because of lock and bridge repairs, sank under the weight of debilitating colds--a truly nasty one that a woman who sat next to me on my way to Charleston ten days ago gave me. I very unfortunately passed it along to the Admiral. She has been quite gracious about it though both of us have been coughing, wheezing, snorting, and, worst of all, feeling exhausted. We are now implementing plan C--slowly wending our way back to Charleston where we will leave the boat for an Easter visit to Elizabeth, John, Grace and Teddy in Pittsburgh and then return to trade in the Back Cove for the Sabre and take the Loop back up. But I digress.

With lousy weather forecast, we left Belhaven to head back to the protected harbor of Oriental where we could ride out four days of 20-30 knot winds with gusts in excess of 40. Having traveled from Oriental to Belhaven the day before, our GPS showed the magical "tracks" that take a lot of the hard work out of navigating in places you've never been before. However, the day was sporty with 20 knots plus on our starboard quarter and spray and/or sheets of water soaked the boat and, most painfully, the windshields. We have three windshields, port, center, and starboard, the latter of which is in front of the helmsman. All three have windshield wipers and they were beating time--until only two did. Of course the starboard windshield wiper, the helmsman's, quit. Ugh. We had replaced the center windshield wiper motor a couple of months ago and, we figured, planned obsolence must have caught up with the helmsman's wiper motor too. A quick look, tethered in on the bouncy bow, did not dissuade us of that view.

And so, we struggled. The sheets of water weren't so bad; you could see throught them, especially as they ran off.. Spray on the other hand left dense droplets that made it very hard to see--particularly hard to see those awful crab pots that can wrap around your prop and stun your 715 horsepower engine into disbelieving silence. We kept a careful watch, slowed down to give us more time to avoid obstacles, and made it to Oriental none the worse for wear.

That afternoon, in the quiet and still of the dock, we examined our stubborn friend. With Cap on the outside and the Admiral in, she turned on the wipers so Cap could watch. Voila, the Admiral heard the motor running and Cap saw the drive shafts turn. Out came the Allen wrenches, I tightened the wiper on its drive shafts, and the first little win was in hand. The price of a windshield wiper motor with shipping closes in on a grand; we solved the problem with 15 minutes of teamwork.

We holed up in Oriental for four days and nights, the first three of which the wind blew like crazy from the south southwest. On the fourth night, the wind went to the northwest and brought torrential, horizontally-driven rain slatting against the starboard side of the boat. We awoke to sun, clear skies, and cooler, much drier, though still windy weather. All good, we puttered our way from Oriental to Town Creek Marina in Beaufort and docked on their T-head. Having secured the lines, we connected to their 50 amp power pedestal. But, no power reached our breaker panel. We tried the connection on the other side of the power pedestal. Nada. The dock hand humored us by trying a second pedestal. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

A more seasoned marina hand came along and suggested we look at the main Equipment Leakage Circuit Interrupter (ELCI). This clever device is like a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter except it detects the tiniest electrical current leakage anywhere on the vessel and trips to prevent anyone getting zapped--of course a good thing.

Sure enough, the ELCI had tripped. But, as soon as we reset it and turned on the AC power, it tripped again. Please think the expletive of your choice. What to do? We turned off all of the AC circuit breakers, reset the ELCI, turned on the AC, and one by one turned the breakers on. The ice maker's breaker, in a moment of high drama, tripped not only itself but also the GFCI where it plugs in and the boat's ELCI. Culprit found. Now we've got power but no ice. Thank God for small favors though the rigors of boating demand a cocktail hour and cocktail hours, if you're an American, demand ice.

And there began an afternoon's investigation. I'll make this sound easy and obvious. It wasn't. I knew from rinsing down the boat that you could trip the ice maker plug's GFCI outlet--with some care that's only happend a couple of times in seven months on board.

So, I removed six screws and slid the icemaker out of its cabinet which gave me access to both the back of the ice maker, itself, and the outlet box where both the ice maker and the electric grill plug in--handily on separate circuits. The grill worked fine. Hmm. Wonder what would happen if I reset the ice maker outlet's GFCI and plugged the grill into that circuit. Surprise, it worked fine in that outlet too.

So, the problem did not lie in the outlet box, or the GFCI. The short must be in the ice maker itself.

I begged the Admiral to let me borrow her hair dryer and promised not only to replace it but also to get her a new Captain if anything happened to it. Then I applied warm air in both of the vents on the back panel of the ice maker. First try, nothing. Second try, nothing. But, in my agony, I noticed that the sun not only had just reached its zenith for the day but also moments before had come around the corner of the cabin to now shine directly onto the errant appliance. It would shine there until sundown. And, a clean northwest breeze enhanced the entire setting for drying in that part of the cockpit. Solar power, patience, even a blind squirrel. . . . I turned the back of the ice maker into the sun, organized my tools and left them handy but not easily grabbed by those with five finger tendencies. Then, I very purposefully found something else to do.

Four hours later, I suddenly "remembered" our beloved ice maker, plugged it in and turned on its circuit breaker. Damn (my choice of expletives this time), nothing. But it hadn't tripped either the circuit breaker or the ELCI. It hadn't tripped it's GFCI either but that was less obvious. Oh yeah. . . , at some point during my trials and tribulations, I had turned the ice maker's on/off switch to off.

Hold your breath, trumpets, turn the switch on. Notch a second win for the weekl This particular marine ice maker retails for nearly two grand. You'd never replace it before you'd paid a $500 service bill for the service man to come and tell you it was kaput. So I think my second little win was even bigger than the first. And, I'm happy to report that three days later, the ice is great and the ice maker hums merrily along. And, so does the helmsman's windshield wiper!