It has been said that the definition of cruising in a boat is "fixing
things in exotic places". Unfortunately there is some truth to that,
and it's also true that necessity is the mother of invention, or in my
case, motivation. The circulating fan in our aft cabin (where we
sleep) air conditioner has been inoperable for a while. It hasn't
been a big deal since we've mostly been anchored out in a good breeze,
and with mostly comfortable temperatures. Today however we're docked
in Roadtown, Tortola (in the British Virgin Islands), the breeze has
abated, and temperatures have crept up into the mid to upper 80s.
It was time to do something.

There are no doubt professional A/C service people here in the BVI but
finding someone competent and reliable would be challenging enough
during the week and impossible on the weekend. Out came all of my
amateur mechanic tools, trouble lights and test equipment. With some
poking around, testing and inspection it was determined that the
circuit breaker was supplying power and that the local fuse was OK.
The connections behind the control panel seemed OK and nothing in the
wiring harness was obviously amiss. What next? I popped off the
cover to the junction box between the panel controls and the
condensing unit. Once again voltages seemed normal and there were no
obvious signs of electrical issues. Then I started tracing out the
wiring harness back to the control panel and noticed that there was a
big multi-block connector sitting in the middle. Sure enough, the
connectors did not look firmly seated. I used a big pair of channel
lock pliers to squeeze the connectors together, turned the switch on,
and voila the whole A/C unit came to life.

Mission accomplished.