Chapter 15: Let’s Visit!

It turns out trying to time a visit to coincide with application of the CopperCoat didn’t go exactly as planned.  The weather just wouldn’t cooperate.  We needed a warm, dry spell of at least 4 days, which wasn’t happening for us.  In the end, we just decided to go anyway.  So we went in late March.  We planned to spend 3 days there and hopefully get some things accomplished, since our move-aboard date was less than 3 months away (and still the bottom wasn’t finished).

Our first task was to empty the boat.  Our team was getting mighty tired of moving stuff back and forth trying to access the areas that needed work (which were basically everywhere).  We rented a storage unit and got to unloading.  Cushions, sails, lines, life jackets, electronics, electrical cords, hoses.  You name it, it went to storage.

We also got to see the effects of failed tanks. When the tanks failed, the contents all leaked out and into the bilge. Water, of course, but also diesel fuel. This made the boat smell, shall we say, funky.

We met with our plumber and got to see the progress he had made.  The plan was to remove the old heads and replace them with new.  When we took possession, Meraviglia had a manual, seawater flush head forward and a composting head aft.  The previous owner swore by the composting head-best thing since sliced bread! This may, in fact, be true. For him. For us, we weren’t feeling it. Adding compost. Mixing it with human waste. Emptying it. Thanks but no thanks. We had our plumber remove both of the old heads and replace them with electric, freshwater flush heads.  He also removed the TINY holding tank (like 4 flushes worth-why not just skip the pretense and admit you’re dumping it overboard?!).  The plan was to replace the failed saloon water tank with two tanks:  a smaller water tank and a holding tank.  The leaking shower heads and controllers were also removed and replaced.  Personal hygiene seemed to be progressing well!

We also met with some canvas folks to talk about our dodger/bimini (these cover the cockpit and the companionway into the interior).  Meraviglia did not have a dodger and the bimini was rotting apart, so it got pitched.  After taking some measurements, the plan was to reuse our existing bimini frame, fabricate a new dodger frame, and have a removable connecting piece between them.  The old bimini only provided about 67 inches of headroom in the cockpit, so increasing that was a priority, as was solar panels mounted on the top.  We’re waiting on their design and quote.

All in all, a fairly successful visit. We got to actually meet the people working on Meraviglia in person saw the work so far, and also the mountain of work yet to do. Onward!

Want to see a tour of the interior? Check it out here. Yep, it’s pretty scary.