First two speed bumps and the trip hasn't even started!

This morning, I awoke to discover a Waterway Guide Nav Alert in my inbox.  It said that the Dismal Swamp Canal was closed due to high water!  It seems that they're concerned that the excess water will put too much stress on the lock gates and damage them, so they're closed until further notice.  Stay tuned for updates.  If they're not reopened by the time we get to Norfolk, we'll have to use the Virginia cut instead.  Hopefully, if that's the case, we'll be able to do the Dismal Swamp on the return in the spring.  But I hope it reopens soon.  I was really looking forward to seeing it.

The other hiccup is a little more concerning.  This week, I noticed that a plastic water bottle that I had placed in the bottom of the freezer section almost a week ago had not yet frozen!  I got out another digital thermometer and put the sensor in the bottom of the freezer.  What it reported was that, despite the cold-plate being around 0 deg F, the air temp at the bottom of the box was only 26 deg F!!  Looks like I'm going to have to add another circulating fan to the freezer.  Hopefully, that will get the whole freezer section down to a hard freeze without increasing the power drain too much.  We were really counting on being able to freeze a significant amount of meat to get us through the thinly populated/unpopulated sections of the Bahamas.  Otherwise, we'll just have to resort to our canned meat fallbacks.

I really wasn't planning on doing any more project work in these final two weeks, but we all know about how plans go on a boat!  We left the boat a mess, in the middle of emptying out every cupboard and locker to decide what stays and what goes.  I'll just have to find space to work around the mess.