Recently one of our customers emailed us. Because of our CO detector, he was alive to tell this frightening story:
“I installed a Xintex Carbon Monoxide Detector several years ago aboard our 25-foot Ranger Tug. While the boat has a diesel engine that emits far less CO than a gasoline engine, it seemed like a reasonable precaution. This turned out to be one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my life.
“On August 19th, my wife and I planned to spend a night at the downtown Confederation Basin Marina back in Kingston, Ontario. It’s a convenient place to tour the interesting city. Other boaters were arriving for a “Poker Run” powerboat race that filled the main section of the harbor. We had called for a reservation, but were told that the only spots available were at the “day-dock.” The “day-dock” is normally used by small boats coming in for lunch or provisions. There are no utilities, but we could spend the night on a first-come-first-serve basis. We found a slip and spent the afternoon touring the pleasant city. When we returned around 5:00 PM, a 38-foot Fountain racer-wanna-be was moving in. The finger docks are only 15 feet long and 20 feet apart, but he managed to wedge himself in; about six inches from our tug.
“We went to dinner and returned to the sound of our carbon monoxide detector alarm. After a brief investigation, we found that, contrary to marina rules, our neighbor had started his generator and the exhaust was aimed right into our cockpit. I explained the situation, and he turned off his generator. But then his wife started working on him. She wanted air-conditioning and refrigeration. He restarted the generator after about an hour, and the alarm sounded a few minutes later. She suggested that we either move or tape off the vents on our boat so that they could continue to violate the no generator rule. The security guards were either unwilling or unable to to make them shut off their generator. We felt trapped. It was dark, and there was no place to go without wedging ourselves into an even tighter spot. Half the people on the dock were falling-down drunk. I was unfamiliar with the area and how to get into other marinas. Besides, we had been there first; hours before this guy squeezed in next to us.
“So I called the fire department. They arrived ten minutes later and their personal CO alarms started sounding just standing on the dock. They went into our v-berth and measured over 300 ppm. If we had just gone to bed, we would likely have never awakened. Our neighbors were mad to be told to move or shut off their generator. They left fuming, both literally and figuratively. We spent a sleepless night wondering if one of their drunk friends would damage our boat or untie our lines. But at least we are here to tell the tale.
“Thank you for your fine product. It literally saved our lives.”
R. Odendahl
