Yesterday was a rainy day, and with little else to do, I decided to start a boat project I've been putting off for two years. Installing a deck washdown pump.
For my landlubber friends, anchors and chain rest in mud and slime. When you raise the anchor, everything is covered in gunk which winds up in the chain locker. Many chain lockers, such as that on Drift Away, drain into the bilge. This slime and gunk sit in the bilge and evolve into new life forms, all of which stinks worse than a chicken farm. It's a good thing if you can hose everything off.
Here's the box, which took me three days to find. I knew it was on the boat, I just couldn't remember where. Look at how the cardboard started to evolve into a new stinky life form.
My friend Dick came over at 4 for happy hour, so I happily stopped working for the day. Today we bring our 42" TV to the storage unit, and then drop our Kia (Audrey) off at the marina in Florida. We hope to leave on Saturday, although the weather is looking doubtful.
Today: East winds 30 knots with frequent gusts to gale force. Seas 8 to 11 feet. Inland waters very rough. Widespread showers. Isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Tonight: East winds 25 to 30 knots with frequent gusts to gale force. Seas 8 to 11 feet. Inland waters very rough. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms.
For my landlubber friends, anchors and chain rest in mud and slime. When you raise the anchor, everything is covered in gunk which winds up in the chain locker. Many chain lockers, such as that on Drift Away, drain into the bilge. This slime and gunk sit in the bilge and evolve into new life forms, all of which stinks worse than a chicken farm. It's a good thing if you can hose everything off.
Here's the box, which took me three days to find. I knew it was on the boat, I just couldn't remember where. Look at how the cardboard started to evolve into a new stinky life form.
I placed everything on my junk work bench.
I'm going to mount the pump in the windlass's battery compartment. This will be a piece of cake.
There's the chain locker right there. Easy peasy. Hmmmm.... where is the deck fitting? Jabsco didn't supply one. Amazing. So I hied myself off to West Marine where, amazingly, they had one on the shelf.
You can see it in the pic below, the round shiny thing. I also bought a brass pipe to extend through Drift Away's very thick deck, a 1/2" to 3/4" adapter, a pipe to hose adapter, and a 3/4" tee to tap into the water intake for the forward head.
This is what it will look like going through the deck.
The rain stopped briefly, so I took the opportunity to take my hole saw and cut through the deck and install the deck fitting.
The hose would pass through the chain locker, so I put the hose through a conduit and wire tied it off to one side.
This slowed this project down considerably. Once you've drilled though something, you need to remove the wooden piece plugging up the saw. The manufacturer of the hole saw thoughtfully put two pretty useless holes on each side into which you can stick a small screwdriver to pry the piece out, stabbing yourself in the finger at the same time.
My friend Dick came over at 4 for happy hour, so I happily stopped working for the day. Today we bring our 42" TV to the storage unit, and then drop our Kia (Audrey) off at the marina in Florida. We hope to leave on Saturday, although the weather is looking doubtful.
Today: East winds 30 knots with frequent gusts to gale force. Seas 8 to 11 feet. Inland waters very rough. Widespread showers. Isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Tonight: East winds 25 to 30 knots with frequent gusts to gale force. Seas 8 to 11 feet. Inland waters very rough. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms.
Saturday: East winds 20 to 25 knots. Seas 6 to 9 feet. Inland waters rough. Scattered showers. Isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Saturday Night: East winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 5 to 7 feet. Inland waters choppy. Scattered showers. Isolated thunderstorms in the evening.
Sunday: Southeast winds 15 to 20 knots becoming south 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. Seas 5 to 7 feet. Inland waters a moderate chop. Numerous showers and isolated thunderstorms in the morning...then scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Sunday Night: Southwest winds 10 knots. Seas 3 to 5 feet. Inland waters a light chop. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in the evening...then isolated showers after midnight.
Monday: Southwest winds 10 knots. Seas 3 to 5 feet subsiding to 2 to 3 feet in the afternoon. Inland waters a light chop. Isolated showers.
The rain isn't too big of a deal in a trawler, but the east winds means we can't cross St. Andrews Sound, which is open to the east and shallow, meaning that there would be a very nasty chop and most likely exceed our three foot wave limit considerably. Monday is looking much better. We'll see.
Saturday Night: East winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 5 to 7 feet. Inland waters choppy. Scattered showers. Isolated thunderstorms in the evening.
Sunday: Southeast winds 15 to 20 knots becoming south 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. Seas 5 to 7 feet. Inland waters a moderate chop. Numerous showers and isolated thunderstorms in the morning...then scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Sunday Night: Southwest winds 10 knots. Seas 3 to 5 feet. Inland waters a light chop. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in the evening...then isolated showers after midnight.
Monday: Southwest winds 10 knots. Seas 3 to 5 feet subsiding to 2 to 3 feet in the afternoon. Inland waters a light chop. Isolated showers.
The rain isn't too big of a deal in a trawler, but the east winds means we can't cross St. Andrews Sound, which is open to the east and shallow, meaning that there would be a very nasty chop and most likely exceed our three foot wave limit considerably. Monday is looking much better. We'll see.
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