Colin in the fridge

Finally a bit of good news. We'd been concerned that the insulation around our fridge box might have dissolved or disintegrated which could have been one of the reasons the fridge wasn't working very well. Having taken out the cooler plate and removed the pipes a hole was left that went through the insulation. We could stick our fingers in the hole and feel that the insulation was still solid and in good condition so we won't need to replace it. That would have been a massive job to cut away the fridge box, clean out any old stuff and lay new insulation through the small top access hatch. The existing insulation fills a space about 3" thick so it would have been an expensive job to replace it too.

A family business in Portimao that provide coolers to commercial businesses has really helped us out. We found them by chance when we walked past their garage-like shop on the day we walked to Portimao from Alvor back in October. Earlier this week Colin carried the cooler plate and the pipes on the train to them where they welded in pipe extentions so they will reach the compressor's new home under the nav seat. They tested the cool plate for leaks and vacuumed, tested and refilled the pipes. All was good, no leaks.

Poor Colin has been squeezing himself into the fridge box to make the measurements for the insulation and then fit it. We're using the pink closed cell foam that we've used elsewhere on the boat, which is normally used for under floor insulation in houses. The sheet is 1" thick and we've added 2 layers on the bottom and the back wall which is against the engine room and one layer everywhere else. We'll lose some space but it's still big and will force us to get a bit more organised.

If anyone is wondering why we're doing this work to the fridge, here is the story..... it's a little long! When we lauched in April after 4 months on the hard we were disconnected from mains power for the first time in 19 months. After a couple of days back on the water we noticed the fridge was really struggling to reach it's set temperature and the batteries were taking a hammering; it being April we weren't getting much sun either to top them up, so ended up running the engine for a few hours every day. We hadn't noticed the fridge struggling out on the hard, but then the weather had been freezing with biting easterlies swirling around the hull and keeping it cold. We tried to get a fridge engineer out but he couldn't get to us for ages, so we looking for a way to top up the coolant gas which we thought might have leaked out. We checked with the compressor manufacturers and they agreed it would be ok to use one of the car air-con kits we could buy from Halfords; it's not possible to buy r134a refridgerant gas in the UK unless you've done a course on how to use it. We bought a kit, had a bit of faff getting it to connect (fridge compressor is American = imperial threads, air-con kit was metric) but managed to get some gas in via an adaptor bought off Ebay. When we got to Brighton we bought another can and added more gas. But the fridge was still not running right and at anchor we were having to turn the fridge off overnight to save the batteries. Roll forward to an unexpected delay in Falmouth where we had the time to book in a visit from a fridge man we'd used before. He vacuumed out the system and put in new gas, but overnight the fridge temperature didn't drop. He came again and added more gas but still no joy and we were now ready to head across Biscay. We decided we'd just have to live with a not very cool fridge for the next few months.


Happy birthday to Colin

Still awake? Well this week's big fun was Colin's birthday where we squeezed 8 friends into Emerald's saloon for food and lots of wine, making 10 people including us, which we reckon is the most we can get in seated without having to sit on each other! Four round the table, 4 along the long seat and 2 on stools. Cosy but fun.