Air conditioning on the blink

Date: Oct 24, 2020

Weather: Cloudy, then blazing hot 

Waters: Flat

On board: C, A, J2, R, Pudding and a guest, C2 

It was a late start, near 1pm, so we went for our default destination near the Yio Chu Kang fish farms instead of the longer trip to Lazarus Island. After we dropped anchor and through the afternoon, a hired boat which had set out from Raffles Marina with wakeboarders shattered the peace of our spot and sent us bobbing in its wake repeatedly. A nuisance. 

It was a smooth ride out and the waters off Tuas were otherwise like glass. Today, we had C2 on board, the older brother of D, who joined us on the last trip out. C2 is 15, skinny and restless, talks fast and jabs frenetically at his iPhone. He asked lots of questions too, about the features of the boat, and also why other boaters waved at us. A told him it is a maritime tradition. More about that here. 

At our anchored destination, his keyed-up energy found release in leaping and somersaulting off Little Wanderer's bow and swimming around her. 

C2 catches up with his aunt, R.  

The cool, cloudy day turned into a broiler soon enough, and Pudding responded by retreating below deck. We wanted the air-conditioning on but ... nothing happened. A short consult by phone with Eric of SGBoating later, C got instructions to open the hatch below the rear seats to do some trouble-shooting. Turns out the air-conditioner was low on coolant - either from neglect by the marina maintenance crew, or a leak, which could mean another bill to pay! (Repairs were done in July for separate problems. See entry here.)

Pudding had to lean in for a look
 to see what was wrong too.  

Back at the marina later, Capt C roped in C2 for the after-trip ablutions. It's become a sort of tradition on board Little Wanderer 2: Her young guests are asked to help hose down the deck to clean away the dirty footprints, spilled beer or random globs of doggo saliva. As Capt C says: "You've had fun at sea, now get to work. There's no such thing as a free lunch."  

And so C2, like the young guests before him, obliged. He had no option, actually. In truth though, our little "tradition" is a recognition of the fact that kids like to play with water. So this bit of "child labour" is actually fun for them.  

After the boat was hoisted out of the water (below), C was reminded that it was time to book this year's grooming. Dry berthing has spared us the curse of barnacles, but the hull needs protection from a polish with glazing so that stains don't stick.  

LW2 is a little over three years old. 

 

The wake by LW2 on the way back to the marina,
just below the Tuas Checkpoint (Second Link).
A fine Saturday to be out at sea.