When Things Fall Apart

…and I mean that literally.

GB and I have often discussed that we are sailing long distances on what is now an 8 year old boat, and we have lived aboard continuously for over 7 years. Meaning, all The Fox's systems have been put to continuous long term use in a marine environment, so it is to be expected that anything can fail at any time, for any reason. That's fine; we carry backup units and parts for practically everything.

Except a refrigerator.

Yeah, the fridge began to fail about the time we checked in to Costa Rica at Playas del Coco. Its small freezer compartment wasn't keeping a cold temperature very well…then it was only frosting up on one side…then the whole fridge failed after we had left Playas del Coco and headed further south.

This was disappointing but not bad enough to change our plans: The Propane Chef always carries a substantial larder of dried and canned foods for just such emergencies. So much, in fact, that we could have made it all the way to Ecuador – if not Mars – on the dry stores alone. We honored Neptune and fed his fishies with about $30 of spoiled meat we'd just bought in Playas del Coco. And resolved to press on.

The next morning our alternator packed it in. It was drawing energy away from our start battery instead of – you know, recharging it? This, too did not prevent us from continuing south because we carry a spare alternator and GB could install it at anchor. However that spare alternator is the boat's original alternator that worked well for 6 years. We hadn't used it since GB installed the new alternator in 2008. You know; the new alternator that had now quit after just 2 years, all of it spent in hot climates?

At this point I felt that (1) if the 2 y.o. alternator had failed, I didn't want to risk that a 6 y.o. alternator wouldn't work because if that happened we wouldn't be able to start the engine. Which in turn would mean I'd have to hail a passing panga for a tow. On the radio. In Spanish. In the country that's earned its reputation as the most expensive in Central America. Prices equal to or greater than the US and Canada. Also, (2) since we now had 2 important boat parts that had failed, it justified finding a place with shore power so that we would not have to flatten our 8 y.o. batteries while the alternator got repaired; and that would be accessible to both an alternator mechanic and a refrigerator mechanic. Equals: marina.

I therefore backtracked The Fox about 20 miles to the nearest prospect, Marina Papagayo at the head of Bahia Culebra. We expected to be there for about 4 days, so the daily fee of US $2/foot/night* was not too intimidating – we had important things to do, after all, and we planned to do them quickly.

*Turns out, one receives lavish treatment for lavish prices and if you can justify the expense you may want to pay Marina Papagayo a visit. These people are incredible.

As soon as we explained our situation marina manager Fernando and his staff contacted an alternator mechanic who used the spare parts we had to repair our alternator. He returned it to us – fully functional – in one day. Awesome. Fernando also introduced us to Arcangel, the specialist who works on the air conditioners of Marina Papagayo and a few other resorts in the area, to examine our fridge problem. He discovered the aluminum tube that runs coolant from the compressor into the fridge itself, had developed a leak. Complicating the matter was the fact that our Isotherm had a thin copper tube running inside the leaking aluminum tube, in which the coolant runs back from the fridge to the compressor. (We think.) The offending portion of the aluminum and copper coolant tubes is shown in the view looking down into what used to be our fridge. Upper right quarter.

Sadly, though, and not for any lack of Arcangel's skill, the proper copper-to-aluminum soldering materials were unavailable in Costa Rica so our beloved Isotherm could not be repaired. We thus resolved to resume our voyage south, still without a fridge, as soon as the weather – which had grown a bit stormy – improved.

And that's when the lightning struck.

[to be continued…]

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