The Cruiser’s Art of Improvisation

We were almost halfway up the Red Sea and day sailing and coastal hopping as we explored the many reefs, marsas and villages along the African coast. It was an amazing and eye-opening experience as we were greeted warmly in Ethiopia, the new Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt by locals. At one point in Southern Sudan, we were approached by three men in a large row boat. They were the Sudanese navy but not in uniforms and wanted to know who we were. They were pleasant and welcomed us to their country and then went on their way. Later that day we visited a nomadic Bedouin camp at the edge of the lagoon where we had anchored. They too welcomed us warmly and offered us tea and crackers.  But, it was not long after that our GPS died. There was no civilization on the edge of the desert for 100 miles. So, what to do? Improvise, I guess. I took the back off and inspected the circuit board and the wiring to the antenna. All looked good. I tested the circuits with a multimeter and 12 volts was going where it needed to go. I put it back together again, but it still wouldn’t work. Rosie asked if there was moisture inside the unit and that seemed to us both to be the likely problem. She heated up the oven. I took the unit apart again and placed the pieces on a cookie sheet in the warm oven for an hour.  With not much hope, I put it back together, plugged it in, pressed the on button and hey presto it lit up and started searching for satellites. Phew. Cruisers always say that cruising is just moving your boat from one exotic repair location to another where you have to improvise solutions to all kinds of boat problems. In this case, the old adage could not have been truer.