Yesterday was a warm, tropical, cloudy day here. It was a respite from the glaring sun we have most of the time, and it suited our mood. We have been busting our butts on the boat we bought. It’s in the driveway, so at least we don’t have to pack up the car and travel to it. My legs are getting used to climbing up and down a ladder to get into it.

I’ve been cleaning every surface of the cabin. Dan has been buffing the hull. We’ve found a few inexplicable things in the design of the boat, which we’ve been trying to find a way to deal with. The biggest concern is how the plumbing was designed to drain. Usually, a boats sinks drain overboard through what are called “through-hulls”. Holes in the side of the boat, above the waterline. with fittings for the drainage. This boat has these through-hulls, which would lead one to believe that the boat was plumbed using them. We discovered that all the sinks drain into the shower sump, an enclosed box with a bilge pump in it, which then pumps the water overboard. Which to me, would be bad enough on it’s own. Why drain water into the boat, when you have a fitting to drain it out? Mysteries of the universe.

The fitting for one of the sinks where it drains into the shower sump is broken. Which meant that in draining out the water tank by running the kitchen sink, I was pumping all the water into the bilge below the floor of the boat. It seemed to us that there was enough water in the bilge that this has been going on for awhile, with the previous owners. Not a good thing. Next we found out that the pump inside the shower sump box was burned out, so it wouldn’t have pumped the water out anyway.

So, yesterday we got a pump to pump the water out, and priced up a new shower sump box. Then we decided that we are eventually going to try to connect the sink drains up to the through hull fittings meant for them.

Crazy. I’m at a loss as to why they would design a boat to drain normally, and then run all the drainage into the sump pump instead. And then, not even put a bilge pump outside of the shower sump to ensure that if the box or a hose fitting was broken (as is the case), the water would be pumped out of the boat. I’m no expert on marine design but it seems logical, doesn’t it? That you need to keep water OUT of a boat that’s sitting in the water?

Onward. Now we know, and we can deal with it.

We were both just exhausted yesterday, from the non-stop work. The cloudy day seemed to give us permission to take it easy for the day. Dan took me out to breakfast at the restaurant where we met, because it was our 1 year anniversary of the day we met. Then we went shopping, for the pump, and for a few other things for the boat. Last night we went down to the center of this small town to hear a couple of our good friends play music in the courtyard of one of the restaurants. The clouds broke just as we left to go hear them, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset as we sat and listened to our very talented friends play guitar, fiddle, and saxophone to a lot of original music. The guy who plays guitar is an accomplished actor, musician, writer, dancer….a performing arts genius. The girl who plays the fiddle with him, and sax, and sings as well, is just fabulous. The picture underneath is the two of them.

The evening was a great way to finish out the day, mellow out, recharge and relax. Today, I’m ready to go deal with the frigging bilge again, lol.

The pictures at the bottom are taken looking straight up from where we sat, at the lone tall palm tree against the backdrop of the sunset. I just thought it was kind of cool. Hope you enjoy.

     

     

Love and light to all.