Sometimes writing these posts is difficult. Other times, they write themselves. This is one of those.

Yesterday was a day when electricity and I were not friends. First, I had to run a new electrical wire through a bulkhead into another compartment for our Starlink dish. Guess what else was in that compartment? The circuit breaker for our 110 volt shore power service. Guess what I was using to fish the wire? A metal wire. Guess where the wire went? Oh yeah. There was smoke. When I pulled the wire it was glowing red. How exactly I didn’t electrocute myself, I am not certain, but I am just going with “Jesus loves me.” Fortunately, Kim was running an errand. Unfortunately, our project manager was on board to witness this.

Him: “And THAT is why I don’t like metal wire for chasing cables”

Me: “YOU GAVE ME THAT WIRE!”

Him: “Well, yeah, they work great but I don’t LIKE them.”

Me: ………………

Fortunately, no harm done to me or, more importantly to the boat.

So I moved on to the fridge/freezer. We’ve been having trouble with the water pump for it so I was testing the circuit to make sure there was power. Evidently my multi-meter touched something it shouldn’t have because I blew both fuses on the unit. I figured “hey, replace fuses-how hard can it be”. I replaced the 7.5 amp fuse and then pulled the other one. It is an “E” fuse. I googled it. They are electronic fuses often used in fridges and HVAC systems. I called West Marine. I called the local hardware store. I looked it up on Home Depot. No one had “E” fuses in stock. So I texted our project manager.

Me: “The other fuse on the unit is an “E” fuse. Where can I get one of those?”

Him: “An ‘E” fuse? Send me a pic.”

Me: “Here you go.”

Him: “Turn it over.”

Me: “I’m an idiot.” (Goes to insert 3 amp fuse)

So that’s how my day went, pretty much. But the fridge works again!

In other news, we got our washing machine yesterday as well. It’s a mini-washer (no dryer). The challenge was figuring out where to put it. We finally decided to put it in the forward head. On top of the toilet. When we have guests, we’ll have to move it to our cabin, which will involve moving it out through the foredeck hatch and then to the other end of the boat-convenient.

The good news is that now, if I fall asleep on watch and awake to find a cargo ship bearing down on us, I can either relieve myself or wash my shorts, depending on how it works out.

Kim and I want to thank all of you who subscribe to our blog, read our posts, and comment on them. It’s great to have people “out there” interested in this stuff. Happy Thanksgiving!

T-minus 8 days