Quick update on our progress yesterday. We were derailed from our original task list that we put together the day before, yet again. Oh well, shit happens… as it did, literally today. But more on that in a bit.
Well, we didn’t get all thru hulls installed yesterday. We did get three of the eleven – upped from the original count of eight – installed and they look great. Looks how shiny and pretty they are. SO much better than the old corroded ones we removed.
We were only able to get three done because we decided to bite the bullet and remove all of the old hosing to give Matt more room under the cabinets to install the others. I couldn’t blame him… I wouldn’t want to put my head anywhere near them either. They were covered in mold with rusty hose clamps and smelled horrible, especially the sanitation hoses, as you could imagine. It took us a solid 3 hours to pull the hoses out – very carefully, as to not spill too much of their contents into the bilge. We thought they all were empty when in fact, a few were not. Eww.
As soon as they were all out, I busted out the bleach and scrub brush to clean everything and get rid of any lingering smell. Matt was still dry heaving from dealing with the hoses, so I figured this is the least I could do. The worst part was that we never use the starboard bathroom, so all that grossness wasn’t even ours. Ugh. Bleach, gloves, heavy duty trash bags and antibacterial soap were all key components to getting through the day.
In between the thru hull / hose project, I started chipping away at the teal pin striping we’re going to replace with grey vinyl. Let’s do the math here: 40 ft per stripe x 2 stripes per side x 4 sides. That’s 320ft of old, paper thin vinyl that needs to be removed, inch by inch, with a razor blade. 80ft done. 240ft to go. Even with it all white, it still looks 1000 times better than late 90’s teal.
Aaron came back over to reinstall our starboard sail drive. Today is the port side. Catamarans: twice the space, twice the work.
We did get to a bonus project while the engine compartment was open: Matt installed an LED light strip in the compartment to give him better lighting while working on the engines. There was an old light already in there, but it was so dim, it wasn’t doing anyone any favors. This was the after picture… the before wouldn’t even register on camera without a flash.
Another win? Figuring out a better way to do the dishes. The dirty ones go into the blue bucket, and a small plastic shoe bin in the bottom of the other sink catches the rinse water since our drain hose is disconnected and any water down the drain will run right into the bilge. So much better than washing them in the shower! I can’t imagine what the cleaning crew thought as they were picking bits of ground beef and onions out of the shower drain from our spaghetti dinner the other night!
So, we never got to the barrier paint, and we certainly didn’t get to waxing the boat. It’s OK though, because despite the stinky hose situation, yesterday was a really nice day. We decided that we’re going to take our time, do as much as we can do each day and know that we’re still making progress. And have fun doing it! This is all part of the adventure!
On tap for today (Day 5):
- Install remaining thru hulls
- Barrier coat the bottom of the boat
- Remove the rest of the teal pinstripes
- Install port sail drive
Wish us luck! Until then….
