Man Caves

Sometimes I give the impression that I don't do much all day.  Well, I guess once in awhile that's true.  What is more accurate, probably, is that I putz around doing little piddling projects around the boat.  Sometimes they're really mundane, like washing dishes or cleaning up dog poop from the foredeck.

Once in awhile it gets a little exciting, like putting water on the boat.  How is that exciting, you ask?   Well, I don't begin the project of putting water on the boat until the gauge reads really low.  We carry 400 gallons of water and so it takes a long time to fill.  During the process,  I seem to forget that I'm filling the tank until I'm alerted to the fact by either someone knocking on my boat or the sight and sound of water gushing out the tank's air vent.

For some projects, though, I get to play in my man caves, of which Drift Away has two.  The first is the obvious one.  The engine room.

I started the 15 KW generator a couple of days ago.   We never run the generators on Drift Away because we're plugged into the marina's shore power.  It started and ran flawlessly.   Then I tried the 7 1/2 KW generator.  It cranked fine, but didn't catch.  With a diesel engine, failure to start can be one of only three things;  fuel, fuel, or fuel.   Huh.  So when was the last time I ran it?  Thinking back, it was when the mechanic in Norwalk fired it up.  That was two years ago.  Since that time, I've totally redone all the fuel lines.   I better look.  I pulled off the diamond plate cover from the engine room floor.  There they are.  Fuel lines for two engines, two generators, and a fuel polishing system, plus an equal number of return lines.

Hmmm.... I think I'll come back to this later.

I then went to the forward man cave, also known as the junk store room.  This is where I store most of the boat's spare parts and supplies.  this is also my small work bench.

There are a few projects here.   On the far left is a paint brush drying from my windlass painting project (you can see the white Rustoleum at the bottom of the pic, in the middle).  I need to put that brush away, or paint something else.

Below the paint brush is a Guest battery charger, with newly purchased SFE 14 fuses sitting on top.  I need to replace a fuse on one of the two leads (it can charge two batteries).

Next, to the right, is the battery out of my 1956 Thunderbird.  I took it out of the car yesterday to bring it to the boat to charge it so the car will start when it heads to my daughter's and son-in-law's house in the next couple of weeks.  It is their early inheritance.  Behind the battery is a gallon of distilled water, and on top of the battery a turkey baster to top off the battery with.

To the right, on top of the antique pretzel can, is my multimeter.   You cannot do anything on a boat without a multimeter.  I used it to determine a fuse was blown on the Guest charger, and to confirm that the T-bird battery needed charging (it was 8.42 volts).

Behind the distilled water are charts for almost the entire eastern seaboard, along with cruising and anchoring guides, and a case of ginger ale.  If Drift Away sells, the charts go with the boat.  The ginger ale does not.

So I fixed the Guest charger, put away the paint brush, charged the battery, put away the multimeter, took the dogs to the dog park, and then picked Pam up from work.  I think that deserves a victory beer.  Those are stored in a special victory beer refrigerator which is in the forward man cave, as dictated by maritime law.