A tiny miracle- no, really! a miracle!

[Tetepare]

My voltage gauge has been pinned past 16V for years. I bought a new one a couple months ago but never got around to installing it.


Then Saturday it caused problems, somehow making the alarm buzzer go off constantly when the key was on. It was definitely time to fix it.



Of course, the replacement gauge, I find out after disassembling the panel, doesn't have the same connectors. So I went to the marina just before closing and bought what I thought was the right wire terminal.


Two days later we'd heard enough of the alarm, so I again disassembled the panel to install the new gauge. As luck would have it (actually Pisz Poor Planning) I'd bought the wrong wire terminal. And (again Pisz Poor Planning) the marina was closed for the evening. Ugh.


So I re-assembled the panel with the old buzzy gauge and picked up my tools. Going down the companionway to store the tools I see a small plastic bag on the chart table. A bag with five or six wire terminals that are exactly what I need.


Now, I did not buy that bag of terminals. Nor had it been on the boat- I've had the boat for 23 years and I know everything on it. I had never seen that bag before, and it wasn't there when I started the project 20 minutes earlier.


I had not been off the boat. Nobody came on the boat. The wife hadn't been off the boat, and she wouldn't know what to get anyway. Even if the Marina had been open, they didn't have the wire terminal I needed.


Where did this bag of correct wire terminals suddenly come from? Truly, I have no idea! It miraculously appeared!


Now I'm not particularly religious, though I've heard "The Lord works in mysterious ways." And not to question motives, but wire terminals? I don't want to sound unappreciative, but there are a few bigger miracles I could really, really use.


The new gauge is installed now, but I still ponder how that bag of terminals came to sit on the chart table.

[gmakhs]

I lost a 19 wrench in the boat after I purchased , still looking for it, I only used it in the engine room and never to be seen again .

[LoudMusic]

I've certainly had my share of "what is this? where did it come from? how is it exactly what I needed the whole time? nevermind I'm not asking questions ...", but I have to wonder if those terminals were in the package with the new battery monitor and fell out when you weren't looking.

[sailorboy1]

[QUOTE=Tetepare;2714374

, but I still ponder how that bag of terminals came to sit on the chart table.[/QUOTE]

the Wire Fairy

look around because fairies normally only make exchangers, so you are probably missing something now

[Suijin]

Early onset Alzheimer’s. Occam’s Razor my friend.

[CaptTom]

Maybe the bag of terminals fell out of the box the new gauge came in, without you noticing?

Nah. I'd rather believe the sea gods decided to shine on you that day. Maybe it will happen to me some day.

[Shrew]

If I were to believe in a higher power and were to believe that higher power intervened and provided you with (In the grand scheme of life) the completely irrelevant wire connector you needed to complete a job, while allowing wonderful people (including children) to die of horrible diseases, then it would be proof that that higher power is an A-hole!!!

[pcmm]

That's fantastic. That usually happens to me AFTER I've bought the correct bits a couple of times.

[akprb]

CaptTom may have stumbled on the secular answer a few replies back.

That being said he is also correct that the spiritual answer is more fun :-)

[Hardhead]

I'm thankful for any help, no matter where it comes. Good fortune has smiled upon you.

[KenKo]

Hi, Thanks for finding it! I got a bit tipsy Monday and returned to the wrong boat (I'm a couple of slips down from you). I've been wondering what happened to the bag of terminals I was carrying! I do need them back (and hope it's not too much work to remove the ones you've used) but I am grateful you found them.....
--only kidding.

[letoile]

I have had that happen a number of times. One of the best was when a buddy and myself were working on a dinghy outboard with no cooling water spray. We were working on it in the water and had taken the cowling off and found that the spray hose was missing that connected the motor to the cowling. No where to be found. Just then the marina owner's black lab comes walking down the dock chewing on something , stops 5 ' away, chokes and caughs up a piece of plastic tubing on the dock, the exact diameter and length required and looks at us. We looked at each other and cried laughing and then told the lab( who was called Bubba) to go find us some hose clamps !! The truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.

[Hardhead]

Originally Posted by letoile

Just then the marina owner's black lab comes walking down the dock chewing on something , stops 5 ' away, chokes and caughs up a piece of plastic tubing on the dock, the exact diameter and length required and looks at us. We looked at each other and cried laughing and then told the lab( who was called Bubba) to go find us some hose clamps !! The truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.

Awesome - that's one for the grandkids. You owe it to humanity to keep that story alive.

[nhschneider]

Though I’m happy for the OP’s good fortune, most of the time it works just the opposite for me. The bag of terminals that I had just purchased and placed on the nav station mysteriously disappears; the wrench that I had in my hand not 10 seconds ago is nowhere to be found and I know there was something very important that I had to do today but I can’t remember what it was. If there is a higher power that can influence these things, which I doubt, I wish it would stop picking on me!

[cyan]

Not a miracle.
It's just time travel.
You went back in time and gave yourself some connectors.
Time travel rules prevent big changes.
This was small enough to be allowed.
Saw it on the internet.
Must be true.