I don’t know how we managed to get stranded here for so long. It is the least attractive and the least interesting spot we’ve been, yet a week later here we sit.
Ouest still looks like she is on death’s doorstep, though she continues to act as if nothing is wrong. She still won’t tell us that her throat hurts, yet about the only thing she eats right now is mango. She may take a bite of something like toast, but a bite is about it. Which reminds me, she got weighed at the hospital last night. She weighs thirty-three pounds. In the past year she has grown about six inches but only put on one pound. She’s being stretched out.
Lowe has figured out how to go down stairs. Not the correct way, but his own way. He crawls up to the edge and then very deliberately lays flat on his belly. He then inches forward and slides down head first. It’s not pretty, but it is fun to watch. Ali about has a heart attack each time because the steps into the kitchen are pretty steep and he looks as if he is going to do a flip.
On a boat note, yesterday I returned from a trip ashore to Ali informing me that the fridge wasn’t working and she couldn’t get the engine to shut off. Great. That’s great.
The engine kill switch didn’t work, but shutting down was a simple matter of opening the compartment and pressing the lever manually. I cleaned and tightened the wiring connection and that seems to be operational again.
The fridge I took a look at and decided that the coolant must still be leaking out. There are two ancient hoses that I really need to just replace, but as that isn’t going to happen at the moment instead I cracked another can of coolant, hooked up the hose, and let if flow in.
Later when we tried the fridge again it would run for a minute and then shut off, run, then shut off. Over and over again. My only thought was that somehow water or air or something had gotten in the system. With no real idea what to do about it I went ashore to see if there was anybody who worked on these things anywhere in this area. The girl in the office took a look out her window, pointed at a guy working on a big yacht down below, and said that was my man.
Diego was super busy but offered to come out and have a quick look. On the boat he crawled into the engine, asked me for the hoses and gauges to which I replied that I had none. He just laughed and said I should really get some since there is no way to fill a system properly without knowing the pressure. And I would have them if they weren’t so damn big and expensive. But anyway, I started it up, and within a few seconds he knew the problem. I had overfilled the system. One of the two hoses on the compressor was freezing up almost immediately. He told me that should get very cold, and maybe a little wet, but shouldn’t freeze. He opened up the valve and slowly drained the coolant until the compressor stopped switching on and off. Boom. Problem solved. Ten minutes, ten bucks, and another lesson learned. It never ceases to amaze me how things get done in Mexico. People here just seem to know a little bit about everything. I mean Puerto Escondido is way out in nowhere, there are hardly any workers around, and yet the one guy here is able to zip out to my boat and fix my engine driven refrigeration system in ten minutes.
As for the battery issue that we were dealing with earlier in the week. It seems to have pretty much worked itself out. I can’t fathom why, but it is now charging at around 13.7 volts and settling in right at 12.6 after shut down. It seems almost perfectly normal. I’m curious to see what it does next time we plug in to shore power. I’m thinking that maybe the alternator just wasn’t putting out enough amps and the batteries were running too low. But honestly I don’t really know.