" When Pigs Fly"

29

More days

If we can only keep her running just a little bit longer…

Since early planning stages I have been concerned about the excessive number of hours on both engines and the generator. I’ve been told countless times by people in the know, it’s not the amount of hours on the engines, it’s the way they are maintained and treated. I’ve always babied the Pig even from the first, never running more than 12 MPH and seldom going over 2000 RPMs. I saw this as both a conservation effort for the engines and for my wallet, however nothing can quite measure up with the roar of two 454’s with their 4 barrels sucking down an exce$$ of 60 gallons per hour. It’s an awesome sound. Besides the roar of the engines, the sucking sound kinda reminds me of the sound a straw makes trying to get that last drop of cherry slurppy; you just have to get the last drop. Slurrrrrrrp! Ok, so I’ve been thinking engines. I never gave much thought to the other systems. I do now.

Our week has been filled with both anticipation and the unexpected. After our radar was installed on Tuesday we thought we were sitting in high cotton. We were getting that feeling of things coming together. Unfortunately this didn’t last long. As we have posted previously, we’ve had some unexpected issues. First it was the sump pump float for the main shower. The pump float was just a little set back, but the holding tank leak… now that was quite a shitty deal! But no one was hurt and the fix wasn’t as bad as I first had projected, so we persevered, found the problem, made the fix, cleaned up the mess and moved on. The only thing hurt was the captain’s pride.

Our most recent challenge came to our attention because of the scorching Kentucky heat wave we were experiencing all week. Our daytime temperatures were elevated well into the hundreds for three straight days. To leave the dock and do anything was nearly impossible. For several days we just hung out under the dock in the shade, never getting too far from the boat where we were running all three A/C units at wide open warp speed. Anna’s desire to go boating after being cooped up for several days led to a disquieting discovery.

Saturday we decided to go to the little bay past the marina to spend the early evening soaking in the lake and eating dinner on the water. Then we’d mosey back to the dock just before the sunset. We had a great time planned until I reached for the shore power cord. (FYI, our power comes through two power cords that the boat is tethered to from the dock. These two cords provide all power to the boat, one provides strictly electricity to the “house” lights, receptacles, and appliances. Our A/C’s all three run on the second cord.) As I touched the shore power for the A/C’s it was exceedingly hot to the touch! The house cord was ambient, so I just chalked it up to the A/Cs running so hard. But I took a closer look at the A/C cord and noticed discoloring around one of the tangs. Hmmm. There was no urgent reason to investigate immediately since the power was now disconnected and the marina’s maintenance shop had been closed for more than two hours, so we went for our swim.

As I maneuvered the boat to our little bay it hit me like a ton of bricks this is exactly how we lost the Chris-Craft in ‘99. Her power cord had started a fire that burned the entire inside of the boat to the color of burnt toast. After the swim I removed the power connection on the stern. I found exactly what I had anticipated and feared the most. The black wire had melted the inside plug and about 2” of black rubber coating from the wire. There would be no A/C tonight.

It’s hard to explain the flood of emotions that rushed though me as I saw the burnt melted plastic and copper wiring. My thoughts all rushed back to losing the Chris-Craft and how lucky we had been then too. Even though we lost the boat, no one was on board at the time and all losses were just material.

Because of the earlier incident with the Chris-Craft I had made a mental note several weeks ago to check these plugs, well before it got hot enough to run the A/C units. Stupidity…carelessness…procrastination…whatever. I let checking the plugs slip through the cracks like a lot of important stuff so often does. It could have cost us much more than the price of the repairs. 

I also felt very lucky. If Anna hadn’t been so insistent about going out for a swim our A/C units would have been kept running wide open, who knows for how long. What happens now? A fire on our boat, maybe worse? The boats around us damaged? Possibly one or the both of us hurt, even one of our boating neighbors hurt? Knowing Murphy’s Law whatever happened would have happened in the dark of night well after bedtime. Who knows maybe the plug would have kicked the breaker. Maybe not. If it did would I have reset the breaker, blowing it off to the heat? These questions will never have answers. I know in the future I need to be more prepared to anticipate the unexpected because I’m charge with a special person who trusts me to keep her safe. I know I spent a hot, miserable, sleepless night that night, and not from the Kentucky heat.

See you on the water.