Okeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon

We arrived at the West PNS NAS gate opening at 0445, hitched up and pulled out. However, within just three weeks before planned departure, we had three different problems, each of which could have cancelled this cruise.
1: The lawn tractor battery which powers the trailer EOH brakes r drained to 11.5 volts, implying that the truck was not charging it while underway on the last trailer haul. I replaced the seven pin wiring connector from when the 2015 trailer. We recharged the battery successfully with a trickle charger. Ford Engineers insured that the charging pin is not activated unless the truck is in gear, the parking brake is off, all the doors are closed, so the brakes have to be on. I measured only 12.4v then, but with the brake pump on maybe that’s normal. The next Ford appointment was 3 weeks away. We bought a small solar panel to keep it charged up when not underway. And called it good.

2: The truck air conditioner blower was intermittently not coming on. We had the same issue last year, and if it’s working at the dealer the technicians refusd to do any diagnosis on it. The third time bringing it into the shop it finally was in hard failure mode and turned out to have a burned blower pin harness. For the 3 weeks prior to leaving, the next 15 to 20 episodes of turning on the truck, the blower spring into action every time except twice and then came on within 5 to 15 minutes. We decided to press on.

3: We had an electrical failure of the windless at the most at the most embarrassing possible time. We were the race committee boat for the annual Navy cup sailboat Regatta race, the largest of our Navy Yacht Club races for the year. When positioned at the precise coordinates needed, the windlass was totally unresponsive. I always carry a Lemar windless clutch winch and the senior race committee member knew how to use it to lower the heavy Manson Supreme anchor, but getting it back up was very difficult with one person having to hold back the control lever and the other dropping the chain down into the anchor Locker where Eileen was trying to keep it from getting too fouled into a huge muddy mess. Back home I was able to see that a connector had pulled off the solenoid control box, but only because I had a expandable tilting mirror to see such things. We were able to press on.

There were serious major thunderstorms passing through on our way up to Tennessee, and the I-65 roadway was very bumpy. We enjoyed a quiet night at Hampton Inn and took off the next day. We found it if you're ever Park your seat door and a hotel parking lot you need to place pylons so that some idiot won't block you in. Czytaj więcej