Fact: The 'fridge and freezer operate better with power.

Well, absolutely, no brainer really!

Not just power coming into the boat, either from ashore or from the solar panels, but once the power gets into the boat, its got to be able to get thru the breaker/fuse to the fridge or freezer ...and that, is where the cunning plan, fell to pieces.

Mid April and this time , its time to depart, before K'Gari becomes a permanent fixture in Sutera Harbour.
Beautiful as Borneo is, all of Asia, is still waiting, just over the horizon.

Upon returning, it's discovered,that in the  haste of the final few minutes of departure back in January, I threw a wrong switch . The fridge and freezer, which had been left running but comparatively empty, the previous July when I went home the first time and which had functioned perfectly, had in fact been off since , oh, about 0955 on the 27th of January, only 77 days and 3 hours, but who is counting?

Oh dear!
 Let me assure you, the seal is so good on both units, there was absolutely not a hint of the problem, until I opened the freezer or the fridge. Well that is not quite true. The friend who was doing periodic inspections for me , had emailed to say he couldn't see the gauges working for the solar input etc. Alas it was not a simple as merely turning off the gauge breaker , I  had in fact thrown the entire domestic system, with the exception of the four never to be turned off breakers. Dehumidifier,watermaker, solar and bilge pumps.

My crew were  flying in the following day, so  I  emptied and disposed of the liquid in the freezer. The  bacon in the vacuum pack was still recognisable and still didn't smell as it was hermetically sealed! The main offender were the blue lipped mussels, the packaging of which was all that remained floating, in liquid slime in the freezer. I had also stored some pulses, mung beans perhaps, in the freezer to keep the weevils at bay. No sign of the mungies, but about a gazillion weevils, were alive and kicking....

One of the many things that had been purchased in the  bower bird spree in KK, was a vacuum cleaner.

As can be seen by the packaging notation "delivering happiness", is clearly written. It's true.Never more so, trust me, than when it was sucking away all those weevils from behind the freezer chest cavity. I could do no more until help arrived the following the day.  What a welcome back!
What a salutary lesson- never again will K'Gari be left with fridge and freezer running , if I'm away for an extended period of time.

When the cavalry arrived the next day, the freezer cavity space was made more accessible than it had been the previous day, after the secret restraining rope, holding it in the cavity was discovered. The springs had been undone and we  were at a loss as to how the freezer had been installed under the bench, as we could not get it to incline just the extra smidgin we needed, to allow its removal.
Once the secret strap was discovered and undone it was just enough movement, to allow the complete cleaning , without the removal ( thankfully) of the entire freezer chest. The smell lingered for days. All sorts of remedies were adopted for "smell removal".I only wonder now what will happen when K'Gari is once again shut up for 3 months. Will the faint lingering odour of,  'eau de rotten freezer', manifest itself again? Only time will tell.

For the record there is now another breaker  clearly annotated on the electrical circuit breaker panel, as "ALWAYS ON"!
The batteries, were in fact fully charged and my stupidity upon departure, had not caused them any harm. That would have been a mega expensive mistake, if I had ruined the batteries.