Whenever I am working with tools, thing usually start out good as I am optimistic about the plan and the amount of time estimated to complete the task.  Generally everything takes at least twice as long as my estimate.  By the time the original time estimate passes I am frustrated because the job has become more complicated, less simple, more dirty or the plan requires an overhaul.  This is also the time I generally need to let out some frustration via a verbal exclamation.  Leah generally dislikes being around during this portion of the job and leaves when she gets a chance.  However once I have vented my frustration every usually goes pretty well and the job get done.  I would say the last 7 years this is the process that I follow to complete most tasks, especially ones new to me.

When we pulled the anchor off Indian key I noticed it was bent, so when we got to Marina Del Mar I sent them an email to see what they would do about it.   I had heard that they had a bad shipment of anchors and so they would replace mine for free but we would have to wait for the part.   OK I thought, well let’s take on some other projects…

I decided to see if I could fix e Y valve that determines whether toilet contents go over board or into the holding tank because it wasn’t seating properly when I operated it.   The valve was coated with salt crystals which I cleaned up and then put it back together.   It leaked…  In my cleaning frenzy I had washed one of the seals overboard into the canal.   Add another day to our stay while we wait for a new seal to come in.   Also the boys had to use our head while theirs was shutdown. Not good.

The Y-valve with the front cover and valve internals removed.

The deck plate where the holding tanks are pumped out was really tight, because the threads were “gummed up.” I cleaned this up too.

I changed the seal and the worn oring but the new oring was too big and flexed the valve to causing a leak,  took it apart again and put the worn oring in.   Now it seals I think…  Lessons learned,  clean stuff in a bucket,  if it still functional don’t touch it.

The measuring cup is empty after 24 hours of use. Problem solved, I hope.

I built a bosun chair to go up the mast with.  It is a classic design and needs a few tweaks yet.   The cool part was learning to make a splice by weaving the two ends of the rope together.

The Chair

The splice. Thanks Tom for the help.

We installed a bilge alarm which will alert us if the bilge ever sees water.   We are lucky because our boat rarely sees water aboard,  while some boats get water regularly, this means we have set the Bilge alarm really low to alert us early of water.   Hopefully it never runs.   I was also going to put a second pump in I would need to drill a hole in the boat which I decided I wasn’t quite ready to do yet.   I will get the parts for doing it the next time the boat is out of the water.

New float switch installation

The 12V control panel for the boat. Simple right?

I opted for a 6V battery with the leads soldered to the wiring as opposed to playing with the existing 12V system. The alram should never run so the battery should last “forever”

We also broke a hinge pin for the hatch in our bed room.  The straw that broke the camels back was the boys using it as a shortcut through the boat…  No more of that now.   I will say that the design of the pin is inherently weak with a massive stress concentration at the point where it broke. Lewmar, who makes the hatch had 80 pins in stock, so I think this is a common problem.

Old broken pin. You can see the broken end sticking out of the hatch.

New hinge pin. They changed the plastic pieces to aluminum. Bad Lewmar!

Miscellaneous hinge parts… nothing on a boat is simple.