Saved My Bacon

The Danfoss BD Compressor

Schematic, Thermostat Circuit at Bottom

At 4 AM I was at the marina meeting room for a Skype session to Australia and to my surprise waiting for me were responses to the two distress messages that I had sent out at 7PM, the beginning of the night.

Pato Salas responded that he would seek out today a person who might be able to help me with  the refrigerator problem.

The other response was from Roger Wise of Wise Services in La Paz, Mexico, who had installed the unit in October 2010.  He suggested two checks, the first to see if the thermostat was faulty, and the second to see if the “electronic module” might be faulty.

After measuring the input voltage to the compressor at 12.60v to make absolutely sure that there was no power problem I went to the first check.  I removed the thermostat from the refrigerator compartment wall, pulled out the two electrical wires, then jumper-ed them, no doubt to bypass the thermostat.  The compressor came alive.  (YES!!!)  I left the unit running as is not just to prove the system but also to try to save the meat.  After an hour the refrigerator compartment was still chilling down nicely and I was feeling much better about the situation.  (That's an understatement.  I was actually like a dog with two tails, as they say in England.)

I will await Roger's reply on what appear to me three options: bypass, repair, or replace.

It would be good to save the meat, not just to avoid the waste but also to be able to explore new culinary waters, so to speak.

There are two butcher shops at the market.  The very big one specializes in beef and some chicken.  The smaller one specializes in pork, chicken, and sausages. 

At the large shop I could not see beef in small enough chunks for stewing and my Spanish wasn't good enough to enable me to ask the right questions.  So I went to the small shop where the butcher speaks very good English and has been very friendly and helpful to me and to Brenda. 

I told him that I was finally about to sail and told him that I wanted meat for pressure cooker stews and soups to support me for two weeks.  I was thinking of 4 or 5 pressure cooks that would give me 8 or 10 good meals.  In addition to the frozen hen sliced up into 4 parts and some other meats I walked out with 4 pigs feet which he said will make a great soup as long as I throw in lots of vegetables and some beans.  Even though I was raised in Alabama I don't recall ever having eaten pigs feet and I thought “Why not?” and decided to have a go at it.  As I walked to the counter to wait for  the order I glanced back and noticed the pig's head, quite pale and with an unhappy expression on his face.  There's a lot to be said for vegetarianism. 

Anyway, the heavy order cost only 134 pesos and my friend threw in a complementary meat and cheese sausage that he said that I can slice up for lunches.  I appreciated that and thanked him.

I then felt more confident and went back to the beef butcher figuring that I must be able to find some suitable stewing meat in that huge shop.  I then spotted a huge chunk of beef, had the butcher slice it up into steaks which I can dice up later, and walked out with 2 kg of stewing beef.

Honestly, I remember thinking as I walked back to the boat with the load of meat how great it was having a reliable refrigerator.  DOH!