FIRE!

Fire, or do YOU smell smoke?

I talked to mom and dad today. Mom insists i write to my Blog.

OK, write what?

Do you want to hear about the fire? Well it wasn't really a fire. i woke up Saturday morning at 5:15am. Pitch Black. Something smelled burnt, burning. i jumped up, grabbed a flashlight and ran through the boat looking and sniffing. It was that burnt electric smell. I searched everywhere but couldn't find anything, so i turned off all the electrics on the boat, opened the hatches and went back to sleep. Later that morning - after sunrise - i got up and searched again for the cause of the burnt smell. i was afraid it was my motor on the refrigerator blown out. so i turned back on my appliances and sure enough in about five minutes the burning electric smell came back.

in the daylight i could look around and SEE the burnt electric line that runs from the shore power to the boat inlet. The boat had suffered a catastrophic electric meltdown. in the photos you can see where a short caused arching that melted all the connections. it was pretty bad.

After replacing the Inlet Plug. (replace and rewire the burnt out part on the boat outlet) then i had to go buy all new cables. $500. Craig and Angela came over and helped me with the rewire. i climbed down in the engine room to hold the nuts and bolts with pliers while craig did the outside work on deck.

Now i have everything on the boat running and there is no heat coming off the cables. i can sleep soundly and not worry about that happening again. (i have also checked the batteries on my smoke alarm and my fire extinguishers)

All good and safe here on the Sailing Vessel Prodigal.

xo skip

a party under the bridge.
Kemah Crawfish Festival 2011 This weekend was the first annual Crawfish Festival. This stuff is in my back yard. i decided to take a couple of photos of the crowds. These two shots were taken from the top of the parking garage beside the Marina. From my vantage point i decided to take a couple of shots of the roller coaster. Then i wondered what their faces might look like. It seems every time they make the big drop there are screams of delight. Every time.... (from my boat i can listen quietly and hear far off laughter and screams from the Roller Coaster all the time) It was a lovely day with lots of sunshine and cool breezes. ahhhhh, the spring!

I hope you are screaming with delight wherever you are today!

xo Pirate Skip

A.C. repair before summer hits - 4/17/11

The Forward AC unit / 16,000 BTU / sits way up in the V birth. (shown here being worked on) i have a list that just keeps growing. Boat Chores 101. i dont know everything i need to do, what order to put them in or even how to do them all. But when my AC went out, i put it on the list 'to be done before summer got here.' Shown here are Patrick and James from True North Marine, here in Kemah. they came out on Wednesday and got my Airconditioner working again. I have to go to Philly for my job and have been doing real office stuff. so my other boat chore list is not getting handled as planned. good news is, it'll still be not done when i get back aboard! Yaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. -skip