Chapter 69: The One Where Kim is Grumpy.

After the holidays, we returned to project work on Meraviglia.  This has been a bit of adjustment for both of us but especially me.  We went from: “Yay, we are leaving and projects are over!”  to “Boo, we are returning (twice) and living in a construction zone again!” I am officially apologizing to JB (see Sunday’s post for name context😂) here, written and stated in public.  I am sorry for being so grumpy of late. This is not my norm and I do not like it either.  This adjustment back has been harder than expected. But I am trying to regroup and find my happy place as we continue to move through the current projects.

We worked this week to continue prepping the engine compartment for our new engine.  Part of this preparation included removing all of the old engine compartment insulation and replacing it with new.  This insulation is very important as it helps to control both the heat and the sound of the engine in our main living space.  Of course to remove the old required scraping and maybe a bit of swearing 😬 But in good news, it did not seem to irritate my carpal tunnel repair so thank you Dr. Sullivan!! Once it was removed, we needed to use the old as templates and cut out the new insulation pieces. Installation was my least favorite part because of course it is messy since contact adhesive is used to attach it into place.  Bob did all of the spraying and insulation while I obsessed on how to keep the contact adhesive from going places where it did not belong – mainly the floor and the stairs surrounding the engine compartment.  Fortunately, we have our floors covered anyway from the engine so that was very helpful. There are a few sticky spots but overall went much better than expected.

The other ongoing project is the freezer box rebuild.  You may remember in some earlier chapters we had to replace our refrigerator/freezer system.  While our new Seafrost system is great, the temperature, especially in the freezer, was still a bit of a challenge.  In order to maintain the temperature we desired it was requiring the compressor to run A LOT which then impacts our power usage (and our ability to sleep since the compressor is in my closet in our cabin). In doing some research and talking with Jamie, we knew it was likely occurring due to poor and/or wet insulation of the box.  The challenge is how to fix it without having to do an entire rebuild and taking the galley countertops off which we definitely did not want to do.  We had to make a decision to either ignore it,  try and do a partial tear out and reassembly, or totally give up on the new Seafrost system and move to using a portable Dometic.  I wanted to ignore it frankly but after some persuasion, we decided to try and rebuild/reinsulate of the existing freezer box since we have a brand new Seafrost system that was working well.  So how do you do a rebuild? Well, it involved cutting the existing freezer box out in quadrants to be able to access the foam underneath to remove it.  This may not sound too complicated but in reality it was and we will let you know in a future post if we can actually put it back together again! After the shell was out it was time to dig out the insulation.  The old insulation was of course several inches thick and applied directly to the hull of the boat behind and under the box.  This meant chipping, prying, using a crowbar, and various other methods of getting it out along with a slightly increased bit of swearing.  It was further complicated because, coming as a surprise to no one, the insulation was wet and what does water do in cold temperatures??? Freeze of course. So chipping frozen insulation was a fun morning activity.  Next, we had to decide how best to reinsulate, closed cell insulation sheets vs spray in foam.  Given the odd shapes with the hull, we decided spray in would be best so Bob ordered that for delivery. As you may remember, we sold the car when we left so that has also made repair work a bit more challenging.  But we have determined we can walk to Central Hardware in 10 minutes or less! Anyway, the spray foam arrived via Amazon but the instructions clearly stated that the foam had to be at or above a temperature of 70-85 degrees.  We have no heat in the boat and the temperatures at night have been down in the 30’s and 40’s. So into the engine compartment went the spray foam tanks with directed heat into the compartment from a portable heater. Sigh. After 24 hours of this improvised method, we were ready to spray foam. We were both a little nervous about whether or not this would work but for once, it actually seemed easier than expected. Bob was done adding foam in 30 mins or less! Now the next step will be trimming the foam to be able to reinstall the freezer box quadrants – more on that next time!!

In the midst of all this fun, we also had a storm system move through.  We spent Tuesday under a tornado watch that was accompanied by wind, hail and LOTS of rain. Fortunately it ended up not being as bad as forecasted so that was a plus! The weather, like everywhere it seems, has been a bit erratic.  We have a 70 degree day followed by cold temps and wind for a week.  This next week we are forecasted to have a new low temp of 26 at night so we will see how the portable space heaters stand up to the test! We are also hopeful to do our new engine install this week so fingers crossed for weather that cooperates! 

In some good, non-boat news, both of our children will soon reside on the East coast in the same city!! Hurray for not being on opposite coasts and time zones! Katharine (and Sage her adorable cat below) have officially moved out of her place in Cali.  Nick flew out to LA on Wednesday (Thank you Nick!) and they are currently driving her car back across the country enroute to Georgia! We are so excited that they will be in the same city together- watch out Atlanta!! So with that happy news, I will end here for now and endeavor to be less grumpy moving forward.  As our mentor Behan always says,  misery is optional!