Summertime on Kent Island: 7/19 - 7/22

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Monday, July 19  

The morning started out overcast, so much so that the sun had a difficult time penetrating the thick clouds until about noon.

Since we had to get Maggie's luggage out of our storage unit (yes, she's making another family trip), we decided to get a lot of things done in the same trip to Annapolis.  After running our errands we stopped at Lemongrass II for a delicious lunch.  (It may not have been in strict accordance with our KETO guidelines but it was close enough.)

We shared an appetizer of crispy
asparagus before lunch.  
(This was so good!)

When we got back to the island from lunch in Annapolis I had intended to changeout the clear bowl of our raw water strainer for the A/C (since the old one was no longer transparent).  However, I didn't have a new gasket--I had to order a gasket set for the strainer.  (I later learned that they were on back order.)  So, I postponed this little task to another time.  (However, we accomplished a few other little tasks around Kent Island that will save my time tomorrow.)

Onboard electrical "wackiness" in FOUR separate areas

Lately there have been four separate electrical devices onboard Rainy Days that have exhibited "wacky" behavior.  Since our trip back from the Exumas last spring, our wind instrument has been totally "wacky."  The wind direction seems reasonable but the wind speed is all over the map and changes instantly.

Sometime earlier this year, our Watt Wizard exhibited "wacky" behavior when it showed battery voltages all over the map.  Cleaning the cable contacts to the readout seems to have fixed this problem.

The volume control on our satellite radio/stereo has exhibited "wacky" behavior as well.

More recently our A/C's thermostat had intermittent "wacky" behavior.  Temperatures roam all over the map and we get false HPF alarms.  Cleaning the contacts, changing the thermostat and, then, replacing the cable has not yet fixed this problem.

If I wouldn't be so scientific by nature, I would think that we were cursed in some way.  Could all this be due to salt water exposure?

Tuesday, July 20

I had to get up at "zero dark thirty" to get Maggie to the BWI airport for her flight to Chicago to visit with her middle daughter and new granddaughter.  After dropping her off at the airport, I drove back to the boat and went back to sleep for a couple hours.

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I woke up (again, for the second time) at 9:30 AM and began looking at my emails regarding the four or five rental properties we were considering in San Miguel de Allende. I must admit that the situation with available apartments is rather confusing.  Two owners have more than one available apartment.  Some charge more for high season while some others don't.  The apartment we select may simply be due to the last owner we talk with.   It was difficult making this decision in a scientific (or even organized) way.  (Adding to the difficulty, most of the owners seem "scatter brained."  You would think this was their very first time renting their apartment.  Maybe I am the one who was "scatter brained" when confronted with such a complex matter at my age.)

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Today was my weigh in day and my weight hasn't changed much at all since the last weigh in day.  This was frustrating because I felt I had made sacrifices in my meals.

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At 1 PM today I had another apartment viewing via WhatsApp.  (We are looking for an apartment that is purely Mexican in style but one that is close to the center of town, is relatively inexpensive, but secure, with a parking lot nearby.)  I believed we would proceed with this particular rental.

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For dinner, I made a cheese steak using a low-carb tortilla as the roll--it was delicious!  (I don't know how much longer I am going to stick with KETO.)  All in all, I don't feel like I accomplished much today.  Part of the reason was getting up so early and having my sleep interrupted.  Another part of it was the first day of missing Maggie...

Wednesday, July 21

I’ve always seemed to have more clarity of thought in the early morning hours, even back while running my business.  This morning, I woke up at 4 AM and thought about my boat project list and how I wasn’t really addressing the two things that have really nagged at me:  (1) the inefficient use of our fridge, and (2) the "wackiness" (yes, a fourth one!) of our volume control on our stereo unit.  So, rather than simply continue working on my list of boat projects (most of which were preventative maintenance), I decided to focus primarily on these two nagging problems over the remainder of this week.  (It helped that Maggie was away during the remainder of this week.)

First up was the fridge.  The compressor has been running almost continuously, many times the box temperature exceeds 42 degrees F, and we’ve had some food spoilage during the past couple weeks.  Excessive frost accumulation on the cold plate has been evident since the beginning of summer—it actually prevents efficient cooling.  Frost accumulation is caused by the influx of (humid) outside air: (1) obviously, through the ice box lid seal, (2) not quite as obvious, by the extensive length of time the ice box lid is open, and (3) by poor distribution of cooling throughout the ice box.  (Unlike most home refrigerators, we don't have an automatic defrost cycle.)

Since there are three sub-problems, I tackled the easiest one which involves a precarious 2-deep stack of liquid containers adjacent to the cold plate.

The precarious 2-deep stack of liquid containers
is at the left of this image.  The cold
plate is on the far left and is
covered with frost.

These liquid containers inhibited the proper distribution of cooling throughout the ice box, even though I’ve installed a fan in the ice box that is electrically linked to the compressor operation.  When you think about it, partially full containers contain a lot of air which further insulates the cold plate.  I moved the stack of liquid containers as the first step in resolving some of the fridge problems.

While I worked on the remainder of the fridge problems, I turned off the compressor so that I could defrost the cold plate at the same time.

Next up, I decided to tackle the “extensive length of time the lid was open.”   We have an extra drawer (or bin) that blocks access to the bottom drawer where we store meats and to the middle drawer where we store veggies.  (I call this drawer “extra” because that was my original intent—not to use it but to have an extra.).  We have been using this extra drawer and it has to be lifted out of the ice box (with all its contents) to get access to two other drawers. 

To access the lower and intermediate drawers, the
extra drawer and all its contents had to be
completely removed from the ice box.
(This was done several times/day
during the normal course of our
daily life onboard.)

The extra drawer collected items like loose cans of beer, yogurt, relish, salsa, salad dressing, and a bag of ice cubes (laying horizontally).  By getting rid of the extra drawer I would greatly reduce the time the ice box lid is open.  The catch here was finding places to store the items that have collected in the extra drawer, the biggest item being a 7-pound bag of ice cubes.  

I decided to store the bag of ice cubes on top of cans and bottles (remember the ones that were stacked against the cold plate) that are now stored in the lower central area of the ice box.  Some other items that were previously in the extra drawer were distributed to other drawers in the fridge as well as other (unrefrigerated) storage areas (since not everything needed to be refrigerated) while some other items were simply discarded.  (In addition, jars of pickles and olives don't need to be refrigerated because they are preserved in their own brine--we had several of these in our small fridge too.)

I completely sorted out the veggie drawer (middle drawer).  We have to remember that fresh fruits and veggies are usually not refrigerated when we buy them and they don't have to be stored in the fridge until we cut into them.  The top drawer (where we store eggs and cheese) was untouched in this effort.

The third sub-problem related to the fridge involved the seal on the ice box lid itself.  Recently, I changed the seal and, then, I added a second identical seal.  The current seals are approximately 5/16-inch wide x 0.11-inch thick (and there are 2 thicknesses--one on the lid and one on the ice box).  Before diving into this area, I checked the seal integrity by trying to slide a dollar bill around the perimeter of the ice box lid.

Trying to slide a dollar bill around the perimeter
of the ice box lid didn't reveal any gaps
in the seal--the resistance was
similar all around.

Because I didn't find any gaps in the seal, I decided to evaluate the other fridge improvements that I just completed before proceeding to solve something that possibly doesn't need to be solved.

I spent the entire morning fixing, defrosting, and cleaning the fridge.  It was cooling down nicely just after lunch.

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At 1 PM three of the new (cool white) LED bulbs arrived and I picked them up at the nearby post office and installed them.  It took almost as long to change the bulbs as it did to install the fixtures because they are so tiny and my working position was so contorted!  (I ordered more cool white bulbs on eBay.)

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As of 3:30 PM we finally have a confirmed apartment rental in San Miguel de Allende for 6 months starting October 1!

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At 7 PM the 72-hour waiting period was over following the staining of the teak frame for the camera cabinet--so I applied the first (thinned) coat of EPIFANES-brand varnish.  (This begins the process of lightly sanding with progressively finer sandpaper and varnishing every 12 hours until I have applied at least five or six coats.)

First coat of varnish on teak frame
for camera cabinet.

Thursday, July 22

At 7 AM I was up early to lightly sand (220-grit sandpaper) and apply the second coat of varnish (not thinned this time) to the teak frame.  Despite having waited 72 hours before varnishing the first coat was still a little gummy when I sanded it this morning.  

It was nice and cool outside, 71 degrees!  (The thunderstorm last night cleared out all the humidity!)

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On my agenda for the day was repairing the volume control on our satellite radio/stereo.  Before I could start, I had to clean up the navigation station desk.  And before I could start that, I had to move a big black and white cat out of the way.

Lola likes to be close to me when
I am working but this was
a little ridiculous.

While Lola was sleeping on the navigation station desk, I installed a battery-powered light in the forward section of the ice box.  I did this because I had trouble seeing the contents and it provided a nice finished touch to yesterday's fridge improvements.   (By the way, the ice box temperature is now regularly at 40 degrees F without the compressor running continuously--a significant improvement!)

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I also picked up a package at the post office and some small items (like zoodles and ice) at the grocery store in Chester.

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The day was clearly slipping away from me--so, I decided to put off the volume control fix until tomorrow when I can start it first thing in the morning.  Before retiring for the day, I lightly sanded the teak frame again (this time with 320-grit sandpaper) and applied the third coat of varnish.

Stay tuned for the attempted volume control fix tomorrow...

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