The unit looking and even behaving well.

Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my isotherm faux Engel  cooler box to me, to me.

Well, she’s back and better than ever. Allow me review the fun times we had with this return for repair. First we swapped emails and phone calls last November with Indel Webasto in Ft Lauderdale. Given the high degree of cost and difficulty in shipping or driving it there from Vero Beach, with no assurance of a speedy and positive (ha!) outcome we said we’d deal with it later. Later turned out to be Myrtle Beach May (sorta like Myrtle Beach Days, only our tune was bitter). If you are just dying to re-read our cooler return adventure, click here.
The agreement was that when we returned to Connecticut we’d make contact and have the box sent here which would allow nearly four weeks for repair and testing. I know you are thinking that while we do have the box back, resting comfortably on the seat, a story must lurk here, otherwise why would I even write this post?
We make contact and then are floored (or perhaps decked is more appropriate?) to hear we are being accused of cooler box abuse; our misuse broke the lid off its teeny plastic hinges and undue roughness caused a wire to loosen which in turn made the temperature regulator unable to regulate. Don’t you love it? I mean all the time and effort we have put into this ordeal from the time we first communicated the problems. Long story short, Mama Manufacturing Company in Italy gave the OK for a new lid and wiring repairs. Grazie mom.
Sounds like we’re getting somewhere, right? What else could cause a delay, because by this time I’m wishing for more fridge space while we have easy access to the markets. The final step begins to unfold and darn if there isn’t a stumble. We get an email telling us the unit is ready to ship and would we provide a shipping address? Well gee I think we could do that- like asap! I won’t say who was Ms ants in her pants about inquiring when the cooler didn’t show up after a week-plus. But we check on it finally and, hey, have you heard this one before?; “I was out of the office and must have missed seeing your email.”

On June 24, 18 days after arriving back in CT, we pick up the aptly named faux Engel cooler box unit. I neglected my photo-taking duties but picture a very large box stuffed into the Mini’s boot and a larger shipping box set behind it, half hanging out the back; the hatch tied down with three feet of nylon clothesline. Decorate the boot’s fuzzy black fabric with pieces of white packing peanuts (they must hate us) for added interest.
We had to keep the shipping boxes so that when some sucker, aka a very lucky person, buys it when we no longer need it (soon, very soon), we’ll have a box to ship it if we don’t sell it locally. 🙂 The three-mile trip to our storage unit was a success; no boxes sustained damage in the process. Pretty good for known box abusers I’d say.
Today I am happy to report that the unit keeps within a few degrees of a fridge or freezer setting and the lid is still connected to the body. Of course, the unit came back a bit moldy inside as no one dried it out after testing and we wonder about the… well no worries, we promise to take better care of the unit this time. 🙂

Too cute! Not sure we could compete at that level; sure would be fun to try!

“The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings.” Learned readers all, I am sure you recognize this stanza taken from Lewis Caroll’s, The Walrus and the Carpenter in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

Aboard s/v Ortolan, a Maine Cat 41, we have no walrus or carpenter, although Russ has a long list of carpentry accomplishments to his credit and lord I sure hope I am not walrus-like in any way except I do enjoy raw oysters!
However, the time has come to speak of a change in the current and a shift in the wind as we draw closer to the end of our catamaran cruising days. We’ve enjoyed a great run, plenty of excitement and sailing, however; with mixed emotions our comfy floating home, Ms. Ortolan, will be for sale by spring.  Unlike the Captain (who is a Pisces), I don’t have the same love of sailing; but I tried.

The New England summers are relatively short but we still have several months remaining to enjoy spending time in our home waters and up through RI, MA and Maine. After that, who knows? Land cruising is a logical next step after water/boat cruising and we just may do that. We won’t exactly be C.L.O.D.s (Cruisers living on dirt) yet; more like just kickin’ up the dirt.