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Just Another Day in Paradise
Until Someone Screams 'SMOKE!!!'
12/07/00
Blaine Parks
Thursday, December 7th,
started like any other day aboard ‘Charbonneau.’
The sun came up, we grumbled about it, and then lazily climbed out
of our bunk. I fed the dogs
while Janet worked on fresh lemon poppy seed muffins for breakfast.
The distinctive smell of baking filled the boat.
I had just finished my first delicious muffin and was just thinking
how nice it was to be here, anchored off of Islamorada in the Florida
Keys, when Janet screamed – SMOKE!!!!
So much for another day in
paradise! The smoke was
quickly followed by loud popping noises under our nav station.
Oh no, not our inverter!! I
opened the small door under the nav station and was immediately welcomed
by smoke billowing out of the locker.
More pops – and getting louder!
We turned off all power on the boat – still popping and the smoke
is getting thicker. I forgot.
The inverter is directly connected to the house batteries.
There was no way to shut it off.
We were looking at a potentially dangerous electrical fire aboard
‘Charbonneau’, aboard our home! This
just couldn’t be happening.
Janet grabbed the closest fire
extinguisher, ushered the dogs up into the cockpit, and opened every hatch
while I continued working on the inverter.
A quick trace of the cables led me to the correct terminals on the
house batteries. Three
connections had to be undone. After
what seemed like an eternity, we had the unit disconnected and the loud
popping stopped. Luckily, it never turned into a full blaze.
The inverter is located directly under our electrical panel.
A fire in there would easily destroy most of the electronics on our
boat.
Janet and I were in shock.
The boat reeked of burning electronics.
Black soot covered the inverter, the locker it’s mounted in, and
a light black dust covered most of the galley surfaces. We couldn’t believe what just happened.
What if we hadn’t been aboard the boat?
What if the unit had caught fire while we were ashore and only the
dogs were aboard? We
were OK, the dogs were safe, and the boat was still floating.
But still, those questions kept nagging us.
They probably will for a very long time.
Our inverter is a Statpower Prosine
3.0. It is a very high
quality unit, was professionally installed, and has worked flawlessly for
the last 8 months. We have no
idea what caused it to short out. We
checked for the usual suspects, water, but the locker was bone-dry.
There were no frayed wires, no loose connections, nothing that
looked unusual. The only
thing that looked out of place was our yellow inverter case, which now had
a very distinct black covering where the paint had melted.
Since the inverter is still under
warranty, I placed a call to the manufacturer and told them my story.
They were exceptionally professional and understanding.
They asked me to remove the unit, box it up, and ship it back to
them for repair/replacement. Half a day later, the unit was on its way to Kent, Washington
for what I expect will be a funeral.
They estimated a two-week turn-around for us to receive either the
repaired unit or a replacement. (Note
-- We’ll follow up on their performance, as well as that of others, in
an article we’re working on called ‘Things that work – things that
don’t.)
The fire followed just one day
after we had a mechanical problem with our generator.
A little trouble-shooting and a phone call to Fischer-Panda
Generators had the problem identified.
But, not before we shorted out the control panel in the process.
Nothing is ever easy on a boat.
However, Kevin at Fischer Panda, was top notch.
He asked us to ship him the panel for repair and promised to have
it back in the mail to us on the same day he received it.
Sure enough, Kevin called us on Friday and it was already repaired
and on its way back to us – no charge.
His boss will be getting a letter of appreciation from us!
So, here we are in paradise. We have clear green water, warm sunshine, enough wind to
sail, and nothing to do but simply enjoy it.
What we don’t have at the moment is any means of producing the
120 VAC power to run things like our vacuum, toaster, microwave,
telivision/VCR, Janet’s hair dryer, and most importantly our blender. How can you enjoy paradise without a good Frozen Tropical
Beverage (FTB). I guess that
means we’re going to be ‘roughing it’ for a few weeks until we get
everything back together.
Now I think I had another muffin to
finish around here somewhere. Yummy,
‘smoked’ lemon poppy seed muffins.
You don’t get that flavor everyday! |
