Sunday, June 7, 2015

Saturday work on the boat

Took the day off work around the house to get some stuff done on Eximius.

Our daughter brought KT over this morning as Pam had to take her car in for service. I picked Pam up at the VW store in Coconut Creek and brought her home with out cutie granddaughter KT, then it was off to the boat with the truck loaded for the jobs today.

1st on the list was the install of the CO detector, a Survey Safety finding. That took all of 5 minutes. Then onto the Propane Solenoid, that took a bit of work, but once I figured out how to get the bits apart, I was able to extract the disconnected solenoid. Now I can order a replacement.

Next was to look at the swim ladder to see how I can add an extension that will reach well below the water line, so I took measurements.

On to doing an oil change, and just as I was preparing for that project, Deke (the P.O.) called and during the conversation explained it was best done using an oil pump via the dip stick tube. So that job was put off till next weekend.

Then onto the biggey! Fix the head. it would flush (empty) smelly stuff, but would not refill. The risk is that some flotsam would lay in the tube between the holding tank and the head pump, not good and likely to lead to smelly hoses. Deke had a couple of head repair kits on board, but had also said that the cost of a new head was not much more than the repair kits so it might be easier to get a new head than try to repair the old one.

With the kits onboard, I thought I would try it. Between the two kits onboard, I was able to get the head fully functional. The pump valves in the two kits differed. One had exposed metal disks on both valves, the other had one valve rubberized. Turns out the rubberized one was the correct one. Now the head is flushing easily. Did a lot of cleanup after that one.

On our delivery trip from Stuart, one annoyance was that the head door kept opening and banging around. I figured it was just the spring in the door latch was old. It was, and a clean up of the inside of the latch and slight extension of the spring and now the door closes and stays closed. While at it, I copied the process on the aft berth door.

The bilge needed cleaning, and I used a few of KT's unused too small to use diapers to soak up the small amount of oil that was in the bilge.

Then it was time to get the Clorox wipes out and start wiping down all of the nooks and crannies. And I took down the linen curtains that were probably original, bringing them home to see if they can be salvaged. If not, we'll either leave them down as most of the cabin ports have blue covers or we'll make new ones using the original securing tabs.

A quick removal of all the garbage generated during the work today, inspect the cockpit lockers and the boat dock lines, time to head home. Spent 6 hours on the boat today, but getting a better grasp of everything on the boat and what need to be done before we head out on our first cruise.

Need to order some stuff tomorrow.

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