We’re in St. Mary’s, Georgia, for a week until we can move south and that gives us an opportunity to just chill and get a few little chores done. First and foremost is boat cleaning. It’s been so cold and damp that neither of us had any impetus to scrub either the inside or outside. Running the heater for weeks and the heavy fog recently have increased the condensation inside and made everything feel damp. What we wouldn’t give for a week of dry sunny weather so we can throw open all the hatches and portholes and dry everything out! But slow and steady wins this race, so yesterday we started with the cockpit. We gave it a good scrubbing, re-installed the seat cushions and shook out the floor mats. Right away we both felt better about life.
Then it was time to tackle the freezer. It wasn’t terribly frosted up and I attribute that to plugging the drain hole in the fridge as suggested by the Manta list. This kept moist air from getting in though the bottom and definitely reduced the frost. But the fridge temp was creeping up and I suspect the fan that controls how much cold air is sent over from the freezer is iced up. It happens. I probably ought to have started on the fridge because that’s where the problem is, but instead I emptied the freezer first. Everything went into two soft coolers we have tucked away for this job.
The empty freezer never looks too bad, but it takes a long time to get all the frost out of there, and there are always a few places with large blobs of ice that refuse to melt.
While I was cleaning it and scooping out the ice I noticed that there were screws missing on one side of the heavy lid. Jack scrounged some appropriate screws and caulk and made the fix.
After about three hours I was able to dry and repack the freezer and turn it back on.
When I closed the lid I saw that it no longer seals. What?! I opened it, I closed it. I could see that it no longer sits perfectly flat and even with the countertop. Putting those screws in has somehow distorted the lid to where it no longer fits properly. We removed the hinges so the lid can just lie flat in the space and yep, it doesn’t fit anymore. We took out the screws and it still doesn’t fit. This is crazy! Now we have a real problem on our hands because if there’s no tight seal the freezer will just run constantly and use up our precious energy. We’re still working on it.
While all this was happening Jack amused Izzy with his shoelaces.
Alan brought Escape Velocity a Christmas gift — a laser pointer that’s fun for the whole family. We all get endless amusement out of Izzy’s stalking of Mr. Dot.
Thanks, Alan!