I had purchased a length of 3M reflective tape the previous year which I thought applying to both the dinghy and the top of Zanshin’s mast so that both the boat and the dinghy would be easier to see at night but had never gotten around to doing the preparation and gluing work; plus climbing the mast is a big thing alone and I’d never conscripted anyone trustworthy to pull me up and let me down (slowly) again. I decided that I’d do the dinghy first and should any tape remain I’d have someone at the docks assist me. Since the dinghy was already on deck it wasn’t much effort to clean the topsides down so that the glue would hold and apply some strips of the reflective tape to strategic positions around the dinghy to ensure that anyone shining a light in the general direction would get a bright white reflection thrown back at them.
The master cabin air conditioning was flashing an error code and was inoperative and I traced it to the water cooling pump which had tripped it’s breaker. I turned the break on again, but after about 10 seconds it tripped again. At first I thought it might be that the A/C was overheated so I opened up the compartment to let it cool down, but the breaker still kept on tripping. I then cleaned the freshwater intake because I thought that the through-hull might be plugged, but that was still clear and after removing the tubing I did a test during the 10 seconds it would operate to see if it was actually pumping (it was). I traced the wiring to a breaker panel in the navigation station area and opened that up to see if anything was obviously awry in there and this time there was a loud *POP* underneath the floorboard when I turned on the breaker and wisps of smoke came up between the boards. The run capacitor on the side of the pump had exploded and there was dielectric oil/goo spread around the bilge accompanied by a distinctly unpleasant odor! At least I now knew what the problem had been. The capacitor costs $8 at air conditioning places in the USA but I doubted that I’d get that good a price here in the marina. I removed the offending component and placed it in a baggie and went searching for a replacement. I hit several places including the chandlery and maintenance shops but had no luck; and there’s no air-conditioning service place in the marina. I’ll have to rent a car tomorrow and go to the “Zone Industrielle” to find a replacement.
By the time I’d given up my search the day was fading and I got some more stainless cleaning done before the sun set. I spoke with my dock side neighbors on “Sweet Chariot” and after the sun set and moon rose I was surprised to see that it was full – it seemed just a couple of days ago that I was looking at full moon and my, how time flies.
I opted for a hot vegetable soup with the rest of my baguette for dinner and finished reading my current book, part of series set in a fantasy world called Alera.
