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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Unfortunately the few hours at the Hinckley docks fine-tuning the engine-drive refrigeration system turned into several days. No matter what adjustments we made, the first freezer holding plate would frost up and the second would remain clear. Concluding that there were ice crystals lodged in the holding plates we initiated a procedure to clear them out.
The procedure to remove such obstructions is to heat the plates and then evacuate the system. Heating the plates to room temperature would melt the crystals. Evacuating the system would reduce the pressure. The reduced pressure would lower the boiling point enough that the liquid would be converted into a gas. This gas would, in turn, be evacuated.
So all day Tuesday was spent with heaters and hair dryers inside the refrigerator and freezer. On Wednesday morning when we were ready to evacuate the system we had the freezer plates up to about 180°F (almost 90°C), more than hot enough for our purposes. The evacuation pump was attached and turned on. We could watch the gauge and the pressure drop. Periodically as a drop of liquid boiled off into a gas we could see the gauge jump a smidgen and then slowly drop back down as that gas was pumped out. That jump confirmed the diagnosis. All we need to do now is fill the system with new refrigerant, do a bit of fine-tuning and we'll be on our way.
But we still couldn't get the second holding plate to frost up. And the other symptoms we were noticing just didn't make any sense.
Thursday morning, still scratching our heads, I read the fine print on the diagram prominently displayed in the compartment containing the expansion valves for both the DC- and engine-drive refrigeration systems. It clearly labeled each of the four valves. The engine-drive freezer valve is next to the DC-drive refrigerator valve, not next to the DC-drive freezer valve. Oops... Boy, was my face red! I had given the technician backward information. The freezer expansion valve that we've been tweaking is actually the refrigeration valve. And even worse... the sensor bulb for the freezer expansion valve was sensing the output of the refrigerator and the refrigerator's bulb was sensing the output of the freezer. No wonder things were so screwed up!
Switching the bulbs to their correct locations we fired up the system again. Amazing how things work when installed properly. By late that afternoon we had settled our bill and were finally on our way. There's still some more fine-tuning to do, but that's at a level that doesn't require a rocket scientist. So our Chief Engineer (yours truly), definitely qualifying as a non-rocket scientist, will be doing it over the next week or so.
Not all of this time was occupied by refrigeration work. Monday morning the technician was committed to another boat so we took the free shuttle bus around Mt. Desert Island.
Acadia National Park has some unique features, including the Carriage Roads. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. had nearly fifty miles of them built throughout the park as a gift to the American people. They were for horse-drawn carriages, bicycles and hikers only - no automobiles allowed. After his death the maintenance of the roads never made it into the tight National Park System budgets. In recent years this has been resolved by additional generous gifts from the Rockefeller family and others, reopening the roads to the public. Wildwood Stables, a park concessionaire, offers buckboard rides along those roads. Kit and I spent a delightful hour riding slowly along on a buckboard. It was a unique experience - one that defies words to describe the beauty we not just see, but feel and hear as well.
There's also a tradition at the park of visiting the Jordon Pond House, eating popovers while sitting on the lawn overlooking the lake. Not being remiss in our tourist duties, we partook of that tradition as well. Rain was falling when we arrived so they were only seating inside. But with hot chocolate and popovers filled with butter and jam, we didn't particularly care where they sat us. Mmmm... delicious.
With no more pressing mechanical difficulties, we were on our way again. It was too late in the day when we left Southwest Harbor to go very far and the wind wasn't cooperating. So we motored to Buckle Harbor, only a couple of hours away. Buckle Harbor, at the northwest corner of Swan's Island is very conveniently located, is well protected, has good holding in mud and is quite attractive. With room for a dozen or so boats, we shared the anchorage with only two others. It felt very good to get away again.
Friday morning I put on my Chief Engineer hat for a few hours. I took the boat apart to get to the refrigeration components, fired up the engine-drive refrigeration system and tweaked it, ever so slightly, about every ten or fifteen minutes. I'd make a quarter-turn adjustment on one of the expansion valves and wait to see how that tweak impacted the system. Too much and the compressor would frost up, potentially damaging it. Too little and it'd take hours of engine time daily to maintain proper refrigerator and freezer temperatures. And the refrigerator had to be balanced with the freezer or it they wouldn't get to their respective proper temperatures concurrently.
After an hour and a half the holding plates were too cold to do more, so I put everything back together and put on my Captain's hat. We were going sailing.
It was an enchanting day for sailing. The wind was brisk and bracing. The well-protected route through Eggemoggin Reach was well marked and, being mostly too deep for lobster traps, was almost free of those hazards as well. The pale blue sky was lightly sprinkled with cumulus clouds, occasionally punctuated with contrails from flights departing Bangor International. Wind was just forward of the beam in the fifteen knot range. Exquisite!
Our evening anchorage was at Buck's Harbor, a really safe hurricane hole that happens to be an attractive harbor as well. Here we took a mooring, explored ashore and managed to pick up four live lobsters from a local for US$11. I swear, we must be eating lobsters two or three times a week. But you won't hear any complaining from the crew.
Saturday morning we left early for Castine, a fascinating town. There are lots of old residences, some dating back to the time of the American Revolution, and dozens of signs describing historical events. We were able to tie to the town dock, park the boat as it were, for a couple of hours for free. It was long enough to walk around the town, view the ruins of Fort George (built by the British and scene of the greatest naval disaster during the American Revolution) and tour the State of Maine, the training vessel for the Maine Maritime Academy.
Just outside of Castine is Holbrook Island Harbor. There we anchored for the night. Kit went ashore for a hike through the Holbrook Island Sanctuary while I did more tweaking of the refrigeration system.
Our intention this morning was to arrive at Searsport mid-morning for a tour of their "don't miss it" maritime museum, then head to Camden, a "don't miss it" town for the night. But the weather wasn't cooperating. As we approached Searsport we could see that the anchorage was already too exposed for comfort in the fifteen-knot winds, and the forecast called for twenty to twenty-five knots in the afternoon. Oh well, cruising plans are merely a point of reference. There was no stopping there for Volant. We turned hard to port and headed for Camden.
Except that the southwest winds were hard on the nose. Arriving at Camden we found the outer harbor was exposed from that quarter and the inner harbor was full. After lunch at anchor, rocking and rolling, we contacted a friend's brother who lived in the region. He recommended we go to Rockland, just an hour away. Taking his advice we weighed anchor and headed out into the elements... and into fields of lobster buoys.
But we got in without mishap, took up a mooring, and met him and his family for dinner.
And here we sit. We're not certain of our plans for the next few days, but we're sure to have adventures.
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