Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

Once again the birds were up at the crack of dawn, so that meant we were too.  Dale and Gerry were going to make a run to Red Hook on the other end of the island to Budget Marine and Nicky and I were going to tag along and possibly jump off at Price Smart; you never know what we might find.  In any event, Nicky had not had a good night and begged off, so I decided to stay back as well. 

Once the guys left, I made use of my time by doing dishes from last evening.  So what? You might ask.  You’d be right, if we’ve used the engine transiting.  We would have plenty of hot water and you simply turn on the tap as you would at home.   However, at anchor, we use sun showers (like the kind found in camping stores) to heat our water.  So, I attached a halyard (since I’m a wimp) to lift the full and heated sun shower off the deck and over to the hatch closest to the galley sink, dropped the shower hose through it and wrap it around my faucet and proceed to do the dishes.  Once done, I run outside to use the halyard to lower the sun shower itself down the hatch, then run back in and over to the sink to refill it.  Once filled, I move it to the floor (OK this time I man handle it) and position it below the hatch, run back outside and use the winch (since I prefer to be a wimp in this matter) to raise the halyard with the attached sun shower back up through the hatch back outside and onto a relatively flat surface to reheat the water.  In case you’re wondering, we have a second sun shower for its intended purpose; a shower.   The only thing to keep in mind in that regard is timing.  You don’t want it tepid and you don’t want it scalding hot.  Life on a boat!

It was about this time I started getting notices on my phone that purchases were being made.  The first one from Budget Marine meant that Dale had found another elbow for the water heater should he need one.  The second purchase was from Price Smart and the amount indicated to me that Dale had found another ice maker.  Not sure if I had mentioned that the little one we had purchased in Ft. Pierce was starting to make very loud and very disconcerting noises; the kind that mean its getting ready to blow up or catch fire. 

Sure enough, a short time later, I hear a dinghy pull up to deposit my husband with large box and grinning from ear to ear.  Yep!  He had found another little ice maker.  What I hadn’t realized was that this meant that he was now free to disassemble the first one to tinker with.  He set sup the new one to sit for the manufacturer’s recommended one hour before using.  Now he was free to tinker with the first one to his heart’s content. 

I was happy to see that he spread an old towel on the outside table prior to his surgical endeavors (he is trainable!) before laying out his tools and taking the outside cover off.  I’m sure it was longer than I remember but it was only a brief time into his surgery when I heard him say “surely it can’t be just that!”  Next thing I know, he’s back and plugging the little darling in.  And, it’s working.  Without the noise.  Apparently, we now have 2 working ice makers.  He found that a tiny little wire about 1” long had caught in a position switch thus preventing that switch from allowing the rotation process to continue with its cycle.  In other words, it got lost on its way to making ice.  Once the wire was zip tied out of the way, the little gem was back in business.  I suppose one way to look at it is, we were running it for long periods of time; with 2 ice makers, we can now cut that time in half. 

It wasn’t too long after that when we received a telephone call from DHL asking where we were located as they had a delivery.  Dale’s rebuild kit had arrived.  When we told them we were on a boat in Charlotte Amalie Harbor, he said not a problem, he’d meet us at the dinghy dock; did it all the time!  Twenty minutes later, I have a very contented husband.  He’s had a good day.  In fact, he even took me to dinner.  Granted it was Wendy’s take out but we did eat it in the park by the marina.  And we didn’t get arrested.  All in all, a good day.