Day 151, Year 5: The End of the Freezer Story
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010
Weather: Partly Overcast Day with Wind and Sprinkles Early Morning
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
Late last we night talked to my sister Patsy and Jean and Ken of Renaissance 2000 (in St. Maarten) via Skype
Snorkeling in the early morning-lots of beautiful fish
Waiting . . .
Waiting . . .
Mid-afternoon Ali and Riyadh arrived to work on the freezer unit.
So it is now 6:30 pm and I am sitting here alone still WAITING. When Ali and Riyadh arrived in mid-afternoon, they hooked everything up with great expectations. The compressor seemed to be working and there appeared to be no leaks, but still the unit did not cool. Then Ali asked where we got the R134A gas that they have been using to charge the system. We said, “India.” And he said, “Corruption-that’s the problem.” Joking or not, we then started wondering whether or not the tank had been refilled with the proper gas. We bought the tank in Thailand and when it was delivered to us it was not unnecessarily heavy. We used the gas on the way to India to try and recharge the failing system and on the first day when the refrigeration guys came to Windbird in Cochin, they used the remaining gas. They then took the tank to get it filled. R134A is written in large letters on the tank and we assume they knew what to get. But this afternoon after having the tank on for quite a long period of time, it did not frost up or even feel cool. That is when Ali wondered aloud if the gas might be the problem. So off they went, Mark in tow, back to the island of Hithadhoo to get their tank of R134A.
It is now 7:30 pm. Mark, Ali, and Riyadh returned, tried their tank of R134A gas and still no freezer. They think the problem has to be the expansion valve because they believe the compressor is working. They would be willing to keep working on this, but Mark and I had decided last night that if it was not working at the end of the day today, we were going to close the case. And that is what we have done. Riyadh didn’t want to give up and he apologized for not being able to get it running. He is a good man and I think eventually he could have figured this out, but we are just so tired of spending day after day doing nothing but focusing on the freezer problem and we just decided enough is enough. When we are on a dock in South Africa we might look into the situation again, but for now we will simply learn to live without a freezer. In fact, like it or not, we already have.
So here’s the plan. We are going to join a resort snorkeling trip in the morning, do our last bit of shopping in the afternoon, and check out on Sunday. Bright and early Monday morning we will be headed to Chagos. How’s that for affirmative action!
