Saturday April 1st, 2017 -64 years
It is my birthday today. I’ve had quite a number of birthdays and I’ve heard lots of folks say they don’t celebrate birthdays anymore. Hell, I’ll celebrate waking up on the right side of the grass for another year. I love to wear costumes… ML says most people NORMALLY don’t dress in costumes on their birthday, watch this fool. I was thinking of planning a caper on this April 1st but my favourite target JJB is too far away.
We are in a slip that belongs to a boat that we met at Green Turtle Cay. ML correctly guessed that her accent was Czechoslovakian. The guys here at the marina are afraid of her but reluctantly are allowing us to stay one day into April in their slip booked for April. I dreamt last night that she was choking me in my sleep screaming “get out of my slip”. Tomorrow when Mango moves south we will move over into their slip which is available for our requirements.
I had to go to Advance Auto Parts up on Orange Ave. Along the way there was a policeman parked beside my trajectory. The neighborhood looked a little suspect so I asked “Is this area safe?” he looked up and then down at my circus bike “How fast can you go on that little thing?” and “Well it is daylight”. Message received and understood. My little feet were a blur for the remainder of the trip west. When I got to Advance Auto Parts I took my bike lock out and then decided it wouldn’t even slow down the mafia, gangs, ne’er-do-wells and rasta-nefarians around there.
I decided to just ride my bike in the store. At first the guy working the store was uppity but he settled. I spent my boat buck and he gave me 10% off thinking I was in need of HELP. We stuffed my booty into my west marine milk carton back carrier and I was a blur heading east back past the bail bondsmen and court house. My croc-flops required cooling when I made it back to the boat. The sensation not unlike walking, then jogging and finally running past a cemetery at night.
Yesterday we had dinner at the pavilion again. Mango’s had a bag of spontaneously combusting charcoal, Publix supplied the burgers and the corn. We roasted the corn on the grill in the husk, and I have to say it turned out pretty well. The trick with the corn is to soak it in water with a couple of spoonful’s of sugar(not C14H18N2O5 or C44H70O23), real sugar. Then at the appropriate point just before it bursts into flames, remove it from the heat and eat. The burgers are the same procedure. It has been a while since I last cooked on charcoal, no knob to turn to control the heat…
We come south because we prefer the warm sunny weather and the heat. We run away from Ontario and the cold and that woman but that’s another story. We then complain when it is not hot and or when it is hot. On a boat this struggle with hot/cold is usually in the ice box or your drink.
Before we crossed Last Mango had issues with their refrigeration. As soon as they got their system repaired our freezer failed for the same reason as Mangos, something contaminating/plugging the capillary tubes. Loss of refrigeration is a hardship because you are unable to buy and hoard food when you find stuff you like. More importantly it might lead to rationing or even worse, no ice in your rum.
I now have most of the tools and equipment to be dangerous repairing and maintaining refrigeration. I’m likely now able to attempt to undo the errors I cause to the systems. The likely culprit is moisture in the system that combines with the oil and freezes in the capillary tube expansion mechanism. Now that we are no longer able to use Dichlorodifluoromethane (R12)because of the effect it has on the atmosphere and global warming (that doesn’t exist here in the U.S.) we have to use R134a. This refrigerant uses a synthetic oil that can absorb and chemically hold the moisture. This trapped moisture can’t be removed by conventional (old) methods of vacuum evacuation. It requires an active attack with heat, nitrogen and tenacity. I lack two of those.
How did we get here? I was going on a rant about we have to pay and work hard to cool things in this hot environment. At home we can drink rum outside and the ice in our cups gets bigger. If we want to store foods we can throw them outside (assuming you don’t live in an area where vermin, varmints and ne’er-do-wells might get it).
We are spending our last week to ten days on a dock here at Harbortown Marina. We are on a dock because of our damaged exhaust system. I don’t have time to tear that down and replace before they lift the boat. So, I have to be able to drive the boat to the yard. Will we have a freezer in the interim? I’ll keep you informed.