Marina! Good. Holding tank spills, Baaaaaad.

Yesterday I got some good news – there was a slip at Fisherman’s Wharf available! This was great news since there is a waiting list for most of the liveaboard places in Victoria. I had to submit a ton of documentation, but I can move there from the first of feb! Realistically it won’t be for another few weeks, but I’m really happy! Moving onto a boat gets closer…

A couple of people asked me about this, so I added it – you can now subscribe to the blog, over there on the left. It’ll send you an email whenever I update (hi mum!).

On the boat side, I went down there today and the boatyard had finished realigning the engine shaft – here are before and after shots.

Not the best pictures, but you can see the shaft now exits the stuffing case in the center, instead of being at the bottom. On the plus side, the cutlass bearing was apparently fine, great news!

I also checked on the repair I did on the hull with the marine-tex. The outside was still slightly tacky which was slightly worrying, so I didn’t grind it down yet. The inside was extremely solid however. Tomorrow or the next day, I’ll sand in a depression and lay down some fiberglass. I also secured the ladder, since the marine-tex on that repair had hardened nicely – it’s actually the first thing I’ve ever drilled or mounted, surprisingly enough. I couldn’t find the fastener on the other side, so the ladder is just on one side right now. I’ll have to fix that. Below you can see the side that I did have, it screws in nicely.

I also found an Exhaust Mixing elbow at a yard, so ordered that. Expensive though, but only slightly more than the machine shop quote, and I’ll feel better having the actual part. That will arrive by Friday probably.

The last thing I did today was continue to remove the holding tank and plumbing surrounding it – here it is before.

Again, a pretty bad picture but you can see the pump on the left, and the two seacocks (the things that attach to the hull and suck up seawater/flush out the tank respectively) at the top.

I managed to remove the hoses that originally lead to the head (toilet), and binned them. My technique was to remove the clamps, pull off the hose and immediately hold my breath and stuff kitchen roll into the end, and then duct tape the whole mess together. I also started to remove the pump – it all went well, except the last hose leaked brown stuff as I unscrewed it – ewwwwwwwwww. Once all the pipes were off the pump, I removed the 4 screws that held it to the wall – it was hard to do so I took my glove off (you can see where this is going), on the last screw the entire pump tilted and runny brown …stuff went all over my bare hand. ARGGGGGH. NO. ARRGGHHHHHHH.

I wrapped my hand in a plastic bag, went down the ladder off the boat VERY CAREFULLY and washed my hands Macbeth style. After that, I decided to just finish getting the pump off and call it a day. Below, you can see where I ended up. I only have 2 pipes (holding tank –> suck out entrance / waste seacock / holding tank) and the holding tank itself to remove. And then I’m gonna scrub the HELL out of that compartment, and maybe put an additional fuel tank in there. Below, you can see what it looks like when I left. Notice the absence of pump :).

Next up – putting the zinc on the prop shaft, grinding and fiberglassing the hull repairs from before and removing the rest of the holding tank.

Also I don’t know what to do with the head which seems in great condition – if anyone reading this is in Victoria and wants a manual head, let me know.

I’m going to finish up with a picture of the boat – she’s going to be a beaut.

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