Chapter 39: MOVING WEEK! Part 2 (Still Metaphorical)

The second half of the week continued the good vibes of the first half. First, we had the plumber on site for three days, which was HUGE. Those projects have been moving as a glacial pace because marine contractors are super busy and our plumber was involved in other projects. But this week we got some “quality time” and got a bunch of stuff accomplished. The forward head is now fully plumbed out. The only remaining item is to install the shower fixtures, which couldn’t be done because we didn’t have our final chainplates yet (more on that later). We also got a good bit of the way towards getting the aft head plumbed as well. The watermaker is in progress, as we detailed in the last post. We still have to connect the watermaker outflow to the water tanks and also the brine discharge to a through-hull (that’s the waste seawater after the freshwater is made). We have a working washdown pump up forward. The washdown pump is a pump and deck fitting for a hose up on the foredeck that lets us wash off our anchor and chain after we haul it from the bottom. That way we don’t put muddy, stinky chain in our anchor locker. So, plumbing-wise, things are looking up!

We also got our crew cabin completed. We can have guests! Granted, these are two bunks, but still! We basically had to rebuild that cabin on the boat: there is a chainplate in there, the portlight leaked, the hatch leaked, and there was a leaky water tank under the lower bunk. But NOW! Now it’s looking pretty good! New lighting, new mattresses (don’t even ask about the old ones. wow, they were stinky.), new paint, new water tank. Pretty swanky by old boat standards. It’s not the Ritz, of course, but definitely up there with Motel 6.

We also finished up the fridge/freezer installation. Because the cold plates were in different locations, the old shelves didn’t work (and there was no shelving in the freezer-it was just a big open space). So, we had to build out new ones. One sheet of polycarbonate, a circular saw, some polycarbonate cement, and a lot of white dust later, we have new shelves! WooHoo! And our new freezer actually gets below freezing!

Chainplates! It has taken 10 weeks, but we finally have ALL of our new chainplates installed. Fabrication took a long time (again, everyone is busy), but this project is in the books. Strangely, the last two chainplates went in without any problems, which seems…eerie. Maybe they will leak-that might make me more comfortable. The forestay chainplate, however, that one was a project! That chainplate doesn’t stand alone. It’s part of the bow assembly, with a deck plate, the anchor roller, and the bow pulpit. It was…a process. One that involved a lot of caulk. For those keeping track, we’ve now gone through 6 full tubes of Sikaflex 295, one tube of 3M 4000, two tubes of E6000, two tubes of thickened epoxy, and one tube of Dow 795. That doesn’t include the bucket-load of thickened epoxy we’ve made up by hand. We’ve come a long way since Elmer’s Glue in Kindergarten.

Anyway, as you can see by the photos, we managed to get it all back together-eventually. I think we had to take the bow roller off and put it back on twice before we finally got it right, but it’s all back in place. So, now, we can stop worrying about the mast falling down when it’s windy, which is nice. And, we can actually raise sails-exciting! We’re not quite ready to leave the dock yet, but theoretically…

To end the week, we made a list. It’s a list of the things we need our contractors to do so that everything is finished. PEOPLE! IT’S ONE PIECE OF NOTEPAD PAPER!! ONE PIECE! Granted, it’s both sides, but IT’S ONE PIECE!

We’re excited. Because we want to go. Mostly because that’s been the goal all along. But also because it’s no longer beastly hot. Which means soon it’s going to be cold. We need to leave.