This last week has been interesting! Have I mentioned before that it is bloody hot?!
The Hinckley tech, a really nice guy named Russ, came and worked long and hard bleeding our hydraulic lines for the flybridge steering. We'll give it a good workout when Chris comes back for our training on the 13th.
We came back from dinner one night and all the lights were out. We were worried about the house batteries since the sea trial in March, when it was discovered that all the batteries were dry. Having them finally die wasn't a surprise but we had hoped to put off replacing them for awhile. No such luck. At least we were connected to shore power for the air conditioning - which struggled to keep it 85 degrees during the day and 79 degrees at night.
Treasure Island Battery gave us a great quote on 4 new house batteries. They would also take the old batteries out and put the new batteries in. Each battery weighed at least 50 pounds and had to be detached, hauled out of the tiny space under the salon floor, carried thru the boat, loaded on a cart, and then wheeled up the rickety wooden dock to the parking lot (repeat the steps in opposite order to get the new batteries onto and into the boat). We surely appreciated the two big guys that did all that work!
The inverter that was fixed as a condition of the sale kept showing faults, so Chuck at Hinckley decided to replace it with a new one under the warranty. Thank you, Chuck!
Jim fixed the holding tank sender. Darn, we didn't get any pics of him suited up in homemade hazmet gear (googles, gloves, breathing mask, plastic bags). I think that was because I made fast tracks to get OUTSIDE as quickly and as long as possible.
The refrigerator died. I knew it was going when I could hear moans coming from the motor in the still of the night. Fixing the motor on a 10 year old marine refrigerator is as expensive as replacing the whole refrigerator. Unfortunately, if we wanted to upgrade the refrigerator we would probably have to have the cabinet resized. Chuck at Hinckley came thru again. He found a new refrigerator, the exact same model at a competitive price and could have it installed within the week. I won't tell you how much it was - we're still in shock. Let's just say for a 4 foot high refrigerator that has to be defrosted regularly and barely fits enough items to get us thru 4-5 days of meals, it costs as much as a full size, beautiful, brand new, side-by-side, self-defrosting, stainless steel refrigerator in your home! For now, we're living out of a cooler filled with ice.
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| Out with the old refrigerator |
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| In with the new |
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| Cleaning the air filter on the forward air conditioning unit located under the bed |
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| Tight spaces |
One of the nice perks in the Manatee Pocket is the free 'M.S. Poop' boat. Yup, it's just what it sounds like. Our holding tank has to be emptied about every 5-7 days. Usually, we move the boat to the fuel dock at our marina and use their pump-out, but the 'MS Poop' will come to us for free. After a long week of major and minor repairs, combined with 110° heat index, we were exhausted and would rather not move the boat over and back to the pump-out at the marina. The 'MS Poop' pulls up to the boat, connects a hose fitting to our waste outlet on the deck and voilá - away go troubles down the tube! This particular morning, the captain of the 'MS Poop' was chatty. Jim and I stood in the doorway trying to be friendly but also holding our breath, as the smell coming off the poop boat can be pungent.
The conversation kinda went like this:
Capt of MS Poop: "Nice boat you got here."
Us: "Thank you. We've only had her for a month or so."
Capt of MS Poop: "Have you owned a boat before?"
Us: "No. This is our first."
Capt of MS Poop: "Welcome to Hell."
Did we mention how dramatic and unusual the sunsets are here?
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