Yikes! That's the Smoke Alarm!

BEEP!   BEEP!   BEEP!
BEEP!   BEEP!   BEEP!

It was one of our smoke/CO alarms! Which one? Is there a fire? There was no smoke in the cabins or salon. The genset wasn't running, so that was unlikely.

Both engines were running hard as we motored down the ICW from Charleston, SC.
A quick check of the port engine room shows steam. The starboard engine room was clear.
We quickly shut down the port engine and the steam cleared out. There was coolant on the inboard deck next to the engine. Briefly starting the port engine showed a leaky hose that was spraying coolant onto the hot alternator, which created the steam. About the time we had determined the port engine was the problem, the voice report from the other smoke alarms told us that it was the port engine compartment alarm.

The smoke alarm saved our engine from losing all its coolant and overheating! Installing those smoke detectors paid off! We had installed a set of communicating smoke and carbon monoxide detectors back in 2015, see Detecting Fire and CO. None of the alarms have notified us of an active alarm situation--until today.

Some of the units have failed over the years. When a unit fails, it says something like "Malfunction in Living Room, Please see manual." The room varies according to what we've programmed for each unit. The unit will then beep periodically to let us know that it has experienced a problem when we weren't around to hear the initial message. These units are build for residential use, so it isn't surprising that they occasionally fail in the marine environment. At about $50 each, they are affordable and provide an early warning system.

  -Terry