THIS BLOG IS ONLY FOR OUR REALLY HARD CORE BOAT BUDDIES.....

We have finally got our new holding tank in. We started the process about the end of January and it has taken this long to line up a contractor and have him come to install it. It is the last major work to be done on the boat, now we will comply with some U.S. port standards where you have a zero discharge of sewage while in port.

The tank is only 10 gallons so it would probably only last 4 days or so and then we would have to have it pumped out. We had the tank installed in the head and it just fits in a storage area beside the toilet. We did not have to alter the cupboard in anyway, which was a relief, the old cupboard doors fit back on and it is hidden completely. The tank is made out of special holding tank plastic and will keep the smell enclosed in the tank hopefully. We did not put in a macerating pump, and there is no electric pump to pump the sewage overboard. It is a hand pump, so that the whole system is really simple and there is very little that can go wrong and if something breaks, Barry should be able to fix it.

Our wet locker is where all the lines for the tank are located; it looks like an octopus is residing in the cupboard. There are lines that go up to top of the locker to vented loops to prevent siphoning from occurring. There is a vented loop for the toilet and a vented loop for the holding tank, then there is a line to the pump and I don’t know what all the other lines are for but my goodness it is a mess of plumbing lines.

For the last few days we have been servicing our winches. There are a total of 9 winches on board, 6 self tailing, two speed winches and 3 two speed, non self tailing ( they are on the mast.) They are all Barient winches, 2 are quite large and they are 28 Barients and they rest of the self tailing are 23 Barients. I took apart a 23 first and Barry tackled a 28. We both followed the directions very carefully, Barry had to spend a little more time putting his back together as it was much more complicated and had 3 sets of gears which had to fit together. The next day we switched and I tackled a bigger one. I put one set of gears in the wrong order on the deck so when we had put it all back together it would not work, damn, we had to take it back off the deck and fiddle with it , put the bottom back on and it still didn't work. Then Barry remembered that I had switched the gear casings so we took all the gears back out and changed casing and VOILA it worked. It was a relief when it finally worked. Barry did the three winches on the mast today and he said that they were quite easy.

The winches were in pretty good shape, there was some grease in them, although in some spots the grease had become gummy and needed special attention to get it off. The 23's that are on the top of the cockpit roof were in the roughest shape. There was lots of salt in them and some of the brass parts showed some pitting, nothing to worry about as long as we continue to do regular maintenance on them. The palls were all in pretty good shape except for one set that Barry had to scrape the crud off of to make sure it would catch again. We were both pretty much covered in grease and oil by the end of the day, but after potting I didn't think the mess was too bad, except trying to get it out from under your fingernails is a real pain. .

Today I went over to Lorna Hughes house and sewed up some new curtains for the aft cabin and over the quarterberth. Living on board at the dock you feel like you are in a bit of a glass bowl, someone can walk up beside youand peer in the portals. Mostly people aren't so nosy as to peer in, but it is coming up to busy season here and you can get " dock gawkers" cruising around the marina. Curtains are just a nice touch. I attached them with this curtain wire through the top, you cut off the wire in the length that you want and then screw in an eye and then put a cup hook on the wall and you are in business. I put weighted curtain hanging stuff in the bottoms to make them hang nicely. I have kept with the blue and yellow colour scheme. I took a bit of the material Mom had used to make the hanging curtains to match the colours. It's pretty loud, but I really like it and it's me!

Securing the inside of cupboards

At one of our Bluewater Cruising meetings, someone said you have to imagine your boat upside down and think about what is happening. You have to think about what will have fallen out of the cupboards, what will have come out of the bins that are under the seats, which are now the ceiling, and what has come off the shelves. To combat this we have screwed down the lids of the bins that hold the batteries and I have devised a way to keep the stuff in the cupboards.

I bought some netting and using cup hooks I fastened the netting inside all of the cupboards and shelves. It has kept all our shoes in their spot below the navigation table and once a cupboard opened and the dishes inside stayed there. I am not sure if the cup hooks will hold the netting if there was constant pressure on it, but the teak is a hard wood so I am hoping the cup hooks will hold.

I was trying to think of a way to positively fasten the cupboards but I have just fiddled with the closing and now most of them are fairly secure. I did not want to spoil the look of the cupboards by putting fasteners on the outside of them or drilling holes in them so that you could put a different fastener inside. If anyone has any ideas about this please let me know.