Some days are just like that.

We headed down to the boat on Saturday with a list of things to do and items to buy.  After stopping at Home Depot, Harbor Freight (when Home Depot didn’t have what we were looking for), Spicer’s (for Thumper’s primary fuel filter), West Marine, the boat (to take some measurements), and right back out again to Defender, we were finally back at Pegu Club and ready to get to work.  Aaaand – not so fast. 

First we discovered the foot pump we bought for the bathroom sink wasn’t going to fit.  There wasn’t enough space between the seacock and the edge of the cabinet.  It would fit if we wanted to fiberglass over the existing thruhull and cut a new hole in one of the thruhulls we had already glassed over.  As much as a foot pump would be nice, we wanted to take on another fiberglass job like we wanted to cut a hole in our head, so we decided a hand pump for the faucet would work just fine thank you.

Next we found out that the measurement for the bathroom sink we bought included the rim and not just the hole.  Too small.  Another item to take back to Defender next weekend.

Fine.  We’ll take off the exhaust hose.  It’s cracked and we want to install a high loop to prevent ocean water from backwashing into the engine in high seas.  Just as Jeff was about to remove it, we realized that doing so would also remove some of the antifreeze.  It’s probably a bit too early for that, so let’s hold off on that task.

How about installing the LED bulbs that we bought?  Wait, where’s the box?  Oops.  Looks like we left it at home.

We did successfully install a new faucet for the galley sink, but then Jeff decided to push on the lever for the foot pump.  The pump promptly fell off from where it had been installed.  O.k.  Time to call it a day.

Sunday we were back again, feeling positive, knowing that there was no way it wouldn’t be better than the day before.  And we were right.  Armed with a list of miscellaneous tasks to complete, we once again got down to work.

Jeff started by removing the two cockpit drain thruhulls and seacocks.  Initially we were going to replace them next year, but after some discussion the previous night we decided to take care of it this season.  Now the only one left to be replaced is the thruhull and seacock for the raw water intake hose for Thumper (the diesel engine).  We might take care of it before splash, but we can’t remove it at the moment anyway  (because the antifreeze will come out).

After that was done, it was time to install the new water hoses.  This was a fairly easy task, although when my head was upside down in the bilge as I tried to shine a flashlight towards the bow so we could see why the hose wasn’t coming out at the other end, I may have said (not for the first time) “I’m sure glad we don’t have a bigger boat.”  Unfortunately we can’t yet cross this item off of the list, because we cut one of the hoses a few inches too short so we need to buy some more next weekend.  Oh well.

Can you tell which one is the old, gross water hose?

Oooh! Shiny new hoses!

After that Jeff quickly reinstalled the foot pump for the galley sink, we took off the traveler line which is frayed and needs to be replaced, and we took various measurements for future projects.

During those measurements we discovered that the bathroom sink seacock and thruhull that we bought in November is too large.  Apparently the measurement is based on the inside diameter, not the outside, so we need 1.5″, not 2″.  Ultimately this is a good thing because the 1.5″ is quite a bit cheaper.  However, it’s a bad thing in that Defender has a 30-day return policy, and last November was a bit more than 30 days ago.  We’re hoping that when we try to return it next weekend, and we plunk down not-just-one-but four more on the counter to purchase in its place, they’ll see fit to accept the brand-new, unused 2″ seacock and thruhull as a return.

Finally, we rinsed down the boat to continue preparing for the barrier coat.  There’s a chance it will be warm enough this weekend to put on the first coat (maybe two!), so fingers crossed.  Sanding left a lot of dust behind, and although we need to wipe the boat with a fiberglass wash before we paint, we thought it might be a bit easier if we did a simple rinse first.  The water hasn’t been turned on at Shenny yet (the nights are still a bit too cold for that), but we had purchased a two-gallon container with a pressurized sprayer which we’re intending to also use as a cockpit shower.

We only had to shlep the container back and forth a few times between the boat and the clubhouse, and then we were done.  Another weekend complete.  Seven weekends to go until splash.