And The Weather Window Slams Shut

We had intended to get an early start and head south from Annapolis today.  The weather forecast the evening before looked good, winds out of the south at 5 to 10 and waves one foot.  This is the forecast this morning....

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON
THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE
FRIDAY NIGHT


TODAY
W WINDS 5 KT...BECOMING S 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 20 KT THIS
AFTERNOON. WAVES 1 TO 2 FT.

TONIGHT
S WINDS 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 20 KT. WAVES 1 TO 2 FT.

FRI
S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. WAVES 1 FT.

FRI NIGHT
SW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 20 KT. WAVES 1 FT.

SAT
NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT. WAVES 1 FT. I

SAT NIGHT
SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. WAVES 1 FT.

SUN
W WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. WAVES 1 FT.

MON
W WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. WAVES 2 TO 3 FT.

West winds a 5 knots are perfect, but 15 gusting to 20 out of the south is very bad.  I'll look at the weather faxes, but there must be a front moving through.  If it actually didn't kick up until 4 PM, we could make it to Solomon's, but weather forecasting is an imprecise science and it could just as easily get snotty earlier.   Since our dock is paid for until the end of the month, and since there's a New Year's Eve party coming up, we decided to wimp out and stay.

On the boat project front, I finally finished the waste holding tank project by installing the deck pumpout fitting.   It was a difficult job because of really tight access under the deck.   I couldn't remove the old fitting because it's threaded and has a huge honkin' nut on the bottom that wouldn't budge.  So I left it.

The first task was to drill a 2" hole in the underside of the cabinet where the waste hose would pass through into a closet where it would connect to the copper waste tank pipe.  This was easy.   Next came drilling down through the deck.   This was hard, because of the thickness of the deck.  For my landlubber friends, a boat deck is a sandwich with fiberglass on the top and bottom and a core, usually of balsa (like Drift Away) or closed cell foam.  Add to that a teak deck, and on top of that the fiberglass we laid over it to stop the deck leaks and you have a thick multi-layer sandwich.  I had to stop drilling every few minutes and remove pieces of what I drilled from the hole saw.

The hole saw is 2", and the fitting is 2", and I didn't want a press fit so I had to use a rasp to enlarge the hole a bit.

Then I smooshed the fitting into the hose and dropped it down the hole.

I went back down below and slipped on a hose clamp between the deck and cabinet and then pushed the hose down into the hole I made in the cabinet and into the closet below.

I sealed everything with liberal quantities of clear silicone.  Silicone is an excellent sealant if not exposed to UV.

Down in the closet, I disconnected the old waste hose and connected the new.

And then it was time for my victory beer.   The only beer that tastes as good as a victory beer is a beer after mowing a lawn on a hot summer day.

All of my remaining boat projects require warm temperatures and include painting the decks, the parts of the hull I haven't painted, getting the Boston Whaler fixed up and running, and replacing water damaged paneling in the boat.  So until we leave Annapolis on Sunday or later, I'll be sitting on my duff.  

I guess we'll watch a few movies, watch some football, and maybe I'll start compiling some of this blog into a book.  A writer's agent I corresponded with thinks there might be some merit here.  What do you think?  Remove the dull stuff, like installing a deck fitting, and leave in the rest?  Remove everything except the boat projects?   A mix?  I don't think readers want yet another travelogue or a how-to book, but something that reflects the realities of what it's like to buy, live on, and cruise in an old boat, warts and all.