Ongoing preparation...

February 27^th 2012

Position N 27° 22.225’,

               W 82° 37.075’.

Longboat Key Club Moorings, FL  

Sub Zero Freezer 

Our original idea about buying ‘Partners’ at least a year before we would be starting to cruise was, in retrospect, rather wise. The intention was to prepare the boat and ourselves by allowing at least a year; we thought that would be enough. ‘Partners’ is a boat and that means, although she is in good shape, that ‘things’ need fixing and money needs spending. As you have read in previous blogs there have been fixes and repairs. I now have a list of 14...no 15, things to be addressed. Last night #15 manifested itself as the freezer spawned a leak. The leak occurred when I turned on the ice maker; we are having four friends for dinner on Saturday and it would have been nice to have some ice for the libations. I have assumed that there is a loose connection in the water supply line somewhere and of course, as is typical, the whole Sub Zero unit needs to come out to facilitate just a look at the source of the water never mind the repair. I can’t do this job by myself! Moving the freezer is a job as it is installed waist high and will need lifting and sliding laterally and then down to the sole (floor) in a very confined space. I am hoping FOJ will be able to help me; he is presently in Puerto Rico on vacation, so...no ice and #15 is now added to the list. It seems that the list is growing rather than shrinking and it is apparent that there will always be a list. The admiral and I are resolved to the fact that we will be sailing with a list. 

Have you ever tried to insert a reducer into sanitation hose, probably not?!

Under the sink!

I have not encountered the need either. Boat are notorious about keeping one on ones toes; I decided to ‘look’ at the faucet in the main bathroom which had been weeping, of course I am on my hands and knees with my head and shoulders buried in a locker under the sink, as I looked at the faucet my peripheral vision caught sight of a tell tale water drip glistening in the light from my flashlight uh, oh! The head inflow and discharge pipes are all in this space. I am sure everyone, certainly every boater, is far from enthusiastic about working on the sewage system. I have been lucky over the years with three previous trawler yachts and have not had to work on the sanitation system. One lives in hope that all leaks can be fixed by tightening the requisite hose clamps (everything is double clamped for safety). Some can be and I have succeeded on several occasions in  topping a ‘drip’ or two. When this does happen daily subsequent checks ensue as there is always some disbelief attached to a ‘get lucky’ repair, it takes several days of checks to have confidence in the fix. Off I went, climbing the steps to the pilot house (I keep my tools in a locker there), in search of the right size screw driver to try the ‘tighten it’ fix. Very quickly it was apparent that I would have to replace the reducer that connected two different sized hoses. After undoing the four hose clamps I attempted to remove the reducer, not easy...the hose itself is tough and the hose clamp had indented the inside hose circumference to the shape of the grooves on the reducer. Fortunately I have a heat gun and this came in useful to just ‘warm’ the hose enough to be able to ‘work’ the reducer free. I had to apply the same procedure to both hoses; even so I had to exert all my strength to get the reducer free. For those of you who, in the future, may have to do this repair don’t bother with Home depot. I couldn’t believe it but they did not have anything remotely like the reducer I needed, so off we set again to West Marine. Low and behold a whole rack of them! Upon trying to insert the new reducer I had the same problem getting it into the hoses as removal of the old one, again the heat gun help the situation and made life a little easier on the hands which were bruised from applying pressure to the end of the reducer pushing it in. In no time the job was finished and...The toilet didn’t work! While doing the job I discovered that I had loosened one of the spade connectors connecting the macerator toilet pump to the ‘juice’. All is well! Oh yes! where was I, the faucet, that will have to wait for another day...

Yard work, mowing the grass, edging, weeding - versus - boat washing! I don’t know but I think it is about the same! I thought that the boat would be easier and quicker? Most of last Sunday was boat cleaning day and Lavinia and I gave ‘Partners’ a birthday! Now it is evident that she needs a coat of wax and the stainless steel railing needs a polish, so that’s the next job, phew! Of course all these chores are labours of love as was the yard work, when we had a house; we now admire the fruits of our labour from the dock instead of walking the around the garden.