Saturday 24-March: Despite our late night, we were up early in the morning to chase down our elusive refrigeration engineer. His phone is still not answering. We know he hasn’t deserted us because he left pressure gauges on board.
After breakfast we go ashore to try to find Richard from the sail loft, he is the guy who recommended Selwin to us … but no luck there either. At the marina we ask around and finally find a young lad who says he saw Selwin earlier, he is working on a yacht near to ours!
Mid-morning Selwin finally answers his phone. Apparently, he had left it at work last night. Likely story! More like he has more customers than he can cope with! Well, we should be thankful of course; getting such technicians in other places in Europe was very difficult too. Actually, impossible in Gibraltar. He says he will come to the boat at 3pm, so again we have a day of pottering to fill downtime for maintenance.
Oana catches up with friends and family on WhatsApp calls (seems odd that it still snowing in Bucharest) and Glen zips off in the dinghy with the depth gauge to try pin down the channel that leads us out of this lagoon … if we ever manage to leave! It’s very narrow and shallow with waves breaking over reef either side. He finds a route where min depth is 2.9m, which will be just 20cm clearance. Maybe the 40cm tide here will actually be significant for this departure.
Finally, Mr. Elusive fridge mechanic, AKA Selwin or Pilot, turns up at 4pm. And it’s impossible to be annoyed with him, he is such a pleasant man. He and Glen try to identify the gas leak. They pressure the system to 100PSi with R134a gas. The pressure gradually reduces but no bubbles anywhere when pouring diluted washing up liquid over all lines and joints. There is only one more possibility – the evaporator in the fridge box itself. The Isotherm fridge manual says under Maintenance: “the units are all hermetically sealed and cannot leak”. Then under trouble shooting section for “fridge not cooling” it says: “gas leaking. Seek technicians support”. You got to love the Italian’s over confidence …. and humor!
To get to the back of the fridge box where the lines go into the evaporator would challenge even the skinniest gynecologist with super long arms. But somehow Selwin gets his whole body into the bilge compartment which is no bigger than a large suitcase, then squeezes himself up the back of the fridge to said evaporator! That’s why he is so sought after! But it all looks good up there too.
After extracting skinny Selwin legs first, the next step is to disconnect the quick-connects, which of course are anything but quick. Watching him work with adjustable spanners gave Glen heart aches, as he was thinking “that will round up the nuts on the quick connecters”. Then swap condenser circuits from one fridge to another. Once both fridges are re-gassed and running we will know where the issue lies when one or the other fridge stops working.
Selwin says he will be back in the morning at 6am. Oana and Glen look at each other, then give the OK. 6am on a Sunday morning?! We know we are retired but still … Anyway, we very much doubt he will stick to that time.
Meanwhile, Oana was kept very busy going through Grenada photos archive. We have been contacted by one of the editors of A-Z Grenada Heritage, who kindly asked permission to use some of our photos for the 2nd edition of the magazine. We gladly agreed, and now at the stage of gathering said photos and trying to email the lot (you know by now how “good” our internet is).
The rest of the evening we clean up, reinstating the vegetable storage in the bilge and replacing the many tie raps and insulating tubes to secure the jungle of fridge gas pipes. And before putting everything back under the galley sink Glen replaces the drain fittings …. the new connections and pipes having been in the “project office” for some time now! The originals had been badly fitted and vibration had broken one of the plastic pipes. Seems odd that any hose connected to a skin fitting is double clamps with stainless cir-clips, then the sink fittings to these pipes are just cheap plastic rubbish. Yes, they are above the water line, but only just.
By late evening, hope beyond hope, both fridges are still working. It’s a conspiracy for sure. Let’s see in the morning.
Today was not the most active day to write a blog about, but we must give the bad with the good. Anyway, as Glen says, a bad day on the boat beats any good day in the office!
