Yet More Painting

Roger Wise visited the boat this morning to look at the site for the new compressor, now that I had removed the old one.  He was delighted with what he saw.  He said that the two existing supports were perfect for the new unit and that I could expect his labor charge to be at the low end of the range.  He looked at the wiring and pronounced it heavy enough.  He will put an in-line 15 amp fuse on the power wire. I showed him the small exhaust fan and he said that he would wire it up to run whenever the compressor runs.

He looked at the refrigerator compartment and said that the insulation seemed to be nice and thick.  I told him about the gaps that I had filled with foam and sealed with fiberglass and he replied that it was a good move. He suggested that I put a rubber gasket on the refrigerator lid.

We agreed that the evaporator will be placed on the same wall as the old one was and the thermostat control will be inside the compartment next to the evaporator.  For me this will be a vast improvement over the old system where the thermostat control was next to the compressor, meaning that to make a change I had to remove half of the cargo in the starboard quarter berth.
 
Roger said that the old Danfoss 25 compressor was of no use and I took it to the dumpster later.  He estimated that it was 20 years old.   However, he will take the evaporator, which was installed new in Port Townsend. 

Anyway, I told Roger that I was thinking of painting the compressor area while I had the chance and he thought that it was a good idea.   After he left I spent a couple of hours strengthening the support framework with two thru-bolts and sawing a piece of ply board to fit over the two supports because I think that a flat surface will be a better platform for the compressor.  After that it was back to the sanding, painting and varnishing.  Fortunately all of the material was within easy reach in the main cabin.  I put a thick double sheet on the companion way landing, then a large plastic garbage bag on top of that and used that as my work area for preparing the paint.  The varnish was for the piece of ply that I had cut.

At this point I have moved about 75% of my possessions from the apartment to the boat.  My webtop computer is now on the boat and I am sending this blog entry from Pachuca.  I will spend one more night in the apartment and in the morning complete my exit.