It’s funny how the days just seem to melt together in an endless stream of jobs. But today (and yesterday) we made some very visible and functional progress that really makes us happy at the end of the day.
Two big jobs were accomplished on Tuesday. Mark spent a few hours getting the dinghy inflated, cleaned and then moved from the bow and secured onto its davits at the stern. After the dinghy was moved, the bow deck needed some major scrubbing! We found some interesting things under the dinghy – a very large cockroach (I’m so glad it was outside and not inside!!) and 2 very cute tree frogs. Okay I just learned (literally- I wanted to find the name of these frogs so I googled them) that these are Cuban tree frogs and they’re an invasive species in Florida. Oops – I saved the 2 on our boat – I didn’t want to feed them to the fish (or the cold water) so I released them onto the pier.
The second job was cleaning the v-berth. I spent about an hour washing the walls, cupboards, ceiling and floor. We’re looking at replacing the mattresses so I took lots of measurements, created a sketch and took photos then I sent all these off to a marine mattress place in Fort Lauderdale. Hopefully they will reply with a quote and timeframe that works for us. In the meantime, now that the v-berth is clean, our storage unit (i.e. the v-berth) is available for all our miscellaneous items. This really helps free up our living spaces so at least we feel better as we look around the main cabin.
Today (Wednesday), we started our day working on more functional jobs. Mark spent the morning replacing the joker valves in both heads. He was the Joker King today!! The joker is a small rubber valve that allows water to be pumped out of the toilet and keeps that “ water” from coming back into the toilet. Well you can probably figure out that when the valve isn’t working, the toilet keeps filling up after you empty it!!! Not a really bad thing when it’s just river water backing into the toilet, but not great when it’s the holding tank. Now both heads are working perfectly!!
I spent the morning emptying out the locker in the galley that holds all our plastic containers and other stuff. All the containers needed washing as well as the locker itself. It was a great opportunity to sort through all the containers we have and keep the good ones. That was the last area that needed cleaning in the galley. After these jobs we took a break and went to Jane and Steve’s boat for a coffee and conversation. It’s so nice to have friends in the marina who are going through all the same stuff. We have lots to talk about, that’s for sure!!
After lunch we continued to work on jobs. Mark repaired our freezer which wasn’t working. He called the manufacturer about a week ago and got excellent support. The owner knew exactly what was wrong, sent a new part and now we have cold storage!! While Mark worked in the galley, I emptied the main cabin, removed the old carpets and washed the floor. The next job was cutting our new carpet pieces and fitting them into place. We had so much carpet that we made a little piece for the v-berth and one of our neighbouring boats grabbed a 2ft x 5 ft piece for their boat.
All in all, it was a very good 2 days!! That day of rest really helped us charge our batteries!! Tomorrow (Thursday) is American Thanksgiving and I’m cooking a turkey plus other yummies. Jane and Steve are joining us for dinner! We’re really looking forward to celebrating with Jane and Steve and relaxing!!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 