Progress On a Few Fronts
04 October 2017 | Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Susan / hot, humid, afternoon thunderstorms, 90 degrees F
Chris, the refrigeration expert on the Rio, stops by as agreed this afternoon to check out our inside (food) fridge, which started up when we arrived late afternoon Saturday, never got sufficiently cold on Sunday, then quit sometime Monday night after we’d done a bit of grocery shopping earlier in the day. The good news is that we hadn’t bought food much since it was a walk to and from town rather than what would have been a full-on shopping trip had we’d had an operational dinghy. The result of Chris’ investigation it that the electronic control module isn’t operational (compressor has power, thermostat tests fine; those darn “brain” parts just do not like lightening!). He replaces the fridge one with the freezer one (same compressor) but then the fan doesn’t work. Jerry has a spare fan, so that gets installed. Then just a bit of refrigerant (gas) is applied (still a good amount in the system). Result: compressor now running, fan’s running, fridge is starting to cool. If all goes well, it’ll be a reasonably working fridge in several hours.
While we wait for Chris (he’s one of the busiest business people here), we remove the current 4 solar panels from the arch and support structure so that Cesar, the local stainless steel expert on the Rio, can finalize the replacement solar panel support structure design, etc. with Jerry. We’ve already shipped most of the needed stainless steel to him from the States because good quality stainless is impossible to purchase here. We brought the remainder of the required pieces to install the new solar panels as checked luggage. We also remove the outside wet bar beverage fridge making room for the new one that should arrive in the Rio late this week, along with the (inside) freezer, solar panels and whatever else Jerry purchased for ocean shipping. In addition while I get some cleaning done, Jerry drops the bottom-end of our outboard motor into Solita and takes it to the outboard repair tienda that worked on it last season. We are of course hoping the parts we brought down are the ones needed to repair / rebuild it.
By the time all of this is accomplished, it’s nearly 4:30pm. We have only a little bit of fresh veggie onboard which somehow survived the fridge outage, and between it being mid-week when offerings in town are usually meager, the time of day and our flagging energy levels, we opt for another marina dinner. If the fridge is working solidly tomorrow, I’ll either walk into town in the morning or have Jerry drive me in Solita in the afternoon to find what can be found on a Thursday.