Coleman and Ted launched an investigation, while I walked over to the club’s ice chest for a bag of ice, just in case. It turns out that the sea water intake strainer for the fridge was plugged up with a jelly fish! Ted dumped it out and cleaned the strainer and tried to start the fridge. Nothing. Still no cooling water!
We found that the pipe leading up to the strainer was also plugged with jelly fish! The three of us managed to use the garden hose on the dock, sticking it through an open port hole, and using its water pressure to back flush the strainer pipe and get it flowing, again.
We are back in business! And, it only cost us an hour.
The weather has been hot and steamy all week, with heat indexes as high as 130. It is a few degrees cooler today, but still very hot and muggy. It is a good thing we are headed to the Hampton Yacht Club in Hampton, VA, for the night. There will be plenty of shore power to run the three air conditioning units aboard! Aaaaah!!
We left the RRYC docks on Carter Creek, motored out into the river and under the Route 3 bridge. Once under the bridge, we raised our main and jib and sailed out into the Chesapeake Bay. In the Bay, the wind was favorable for flying our colorful asymmetrical spinnaker, so we dropped the jib and launched the spinnaker. We had a very nice run almost to Old Point Comfort, just outside Hampton, when the wind died. So, we doused the sails and motored the short remaining distance into Hampton Yacht Club.
In spite of the heat, it wasn’t that bad on the boat, until the wind died. Then, it felt very hot. I was in a “full sweat” almost immediately.
Our club has a reciprocal deal with HYC for a free overnight slip, which they graciously arranged for us. However, since Bottlenose’s beam is wider than most boats at 18 feet, HYC asked us to tie up at any one of their “T-heads” at the end of each of their long docks, so we would have plenty of space.
On the way in, we stopped at a nearby marina to top off our fuel tanks, then tied up without assistance at a HYC T-head.
We walked up the long dock (there are hundreds of boat slips at HYC) to the clubhouse for happy hour and inquired about also having dinner at the club. We found that the club does not serve food on Sunday evenings, so we walked a half-mile to Musasi Japanese restaurant and had sushi. It was very nice!
Back on the boat, we discovered that the fridge had stopped working, again! Yep, found another jelly fish in the strainer – and the inlet pipe was also plugged again. Cleaned them both and re-started the fridge…..but, it still was plugged!! Now, what? We thought we had already cleaned everything that could have plugged. What could have plugged up downstream of the strainer?
We disconnected a downstream hose, attached another hose to it and gently blew through it. Yes, the downstream line going into the fridge itself is plugged! So, we found a garden hose on the dock and this time we pressed it to the discharge opening on the outside of the hull. Some water came out from the disconnected hose inside the boat and it looked like it was loaded with mud. After we got clear water for a few seconds, we reconnected the downstream hose and then tested the little pump that is supposed to circulate the seawater through the fridge. It worked OK. Put everything back together and we were back in business, again!
We slept well in air conditioned comfort.
No comments:
Post a Comment