Ship's Log
November 13, 2007
We're back from our trip to Brian's twin motherlands of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and it was a lovely visit! One highlight was attending an Oklahoma University football game-- every time OU scores, there are pyrotechnic explosions, mascots firing guns, and two scrappy, adorable ponies that tear around the field pulling a miniature covered wagon amidst the general celebratory chaos.
Boomer and Sooner take to the field! On the right, that haze clearing in the sky is gunshot smoke.
Back at the boat, the battle between Brian and our ancient Webasto heater continues to rage as the temperature drops. We've gone through about 5 cycles of Brian fixing it, having the whole boat marvelously toasty for 2-3 days, and then the heater wimpering and dying all over again.
With the memories of our underheated last winter spurring us on, we're working as fast as we can to fix the heater without blowing too much of our cruising budget on something we're not going to need next winter. The model we've got has been discontinued, and brand new units are pretty expensive. Luckily, we found a patient, kind-hearted soul from Webasto's main office who tracked down a dealer of replacement parts for our model. Parts are due in by the end of this week, and if they do the job, we'll have saved over $2200 by doing the repair ourselves. That's the equivalent of over four months of cruising! Cheap and cheerful is the motto around this boat.
The whole thing has been pretty frustrating, and Brian's going to write up a full report once the problem is officially solved for any boat folks who might find the technical specifics useful.
Fixing Session #5: Not Funny Anymore. Notice the band-aid on Brian's hand, which is
covering a nasty burn from the previous round of fixing.
covering a nasty burn from the previous round of fixing.
Lucky for us, the water temperature is still high enough for our reverse-cycle air conditioner/heater that we've got up forward. This basically blasts a stream of hot air straight into the V-berth, so at least we've all got a nice warm place to sleep while the rest of the boat is cold. Sheba actually seems to enjoy being held lately-- she must really be chilled if sharing body heat is more important to her than being left alone!
Just three days until we pull the mast, and we're getting a little nervous. Folks around the marina all tell us it'll be no sweat, but it's still a pretty big deal for us.
Take care!
