Replace Those O-Rings

Faithful readers of this blog will notice more and more posts this year about mechanical issues and maintenance. I do not seek to harp about routine maintenance. However, I do wish to point out how White Pepper has been embarrassed by failure to maintain equipment that I did not even know needed maintenance.

The refrigeration is point number one. The system was installed in 2007. It had worked flawlessly ever since; at least until it didn't. The freezer first failed at Great Harbour Cay this year. Gobby Frances got it going again. However, further failure was inevitable because the o-rings in the fittings were old, cracked and leaking. Later I did find a one sentence item in the fine print of the skimpy owner's manual provided by Frigoboat which recommended that the o-rings be replaced every five years. This should have been a huge “black box” warning, not just a casual “oh, bye the way.” To be fair Frigoboat had left a set of o-rings in the compartment with the compressor. These had been ignored.

Back in George Town, Exuma, Bahamas a miracle occurred. Jan and I walked into town and met with Mr. Rolle, who does refrigeration locally and was recommended. He said he would meet me in half an hour which he did. An hour later the problem was fixed. He replaced the o-rings with new ones. I did not want to use the spares that had been lying there drying out for 7 years. He purged the system, vacuumed out the moisture and recharged the whole unit. Two hours later there was ice in the freezer.

Moral of the story: if you can't service the refrigeration (and I can't) then have someone do it periodically.  N.B. I replaced the entire unit back at in Green Cove Springs. During the replacement of the external keel cooler, it crumbled and fell apart.  The moisture in the system could just as easily been sea water as atmospheric contamination.

Point number two is far more subtle. White Pepper has been having alternator problems and difficulty charging while motoring probably since Florida. There was no question the the alternator was working. It was brand new. Also the belt was tight. However, the alternator was not giving up the amps to batteries. The alternator seemed to work for a while and then quit. I suspected a loose wire and several were found and tightened. Things seemed to improve until the alternator failed completely at Water Cay.

Finally, a friend, Peter from Pearl, came over and applied his expertise. Eventually he found a blown 100 amp fuse. This fuse had been installed years ago during the long stay at Fort Pierce, FL in 2008. I had forgotten about it. Why it blew is still a mystery. Peter advised me not to use the solar panel or the wind generator while charging from the motor. Maybe the current from the solar panels and the wind generator along with the output from the 100 amp Yanmar alternator burned the fuse. We replaced it with a 150 amp fuse for now. Everything seem to be working so far.