Fuji Steps & The Flu...

Well, a lot has happened since I moved aboard and relocated the boat to a liveaboard marina.

First, if you followed my previous refit blog, http://dominamari.blogspot.com/, you know I have a "best friend". His name is Fuji.

After a good roll on the beach

He has been staying with my mother, (thanks mom...you're the best), while I refit Annie enough to get her in the water and move aboard. Now it's time to bring him home. The companionway ladder was way too steep for him to negotiate and since he weighs 108 lbs., lifting him up and down would be too much of a strain on him and me, (He's 10 years old and I'm just old). So, the ladder had to be modified.

I decreased the angle of the ladder and converted the ladder into something more like stairs. The angle is manageable for Fuji and makes for easier egress and ingress. Plus, the stairs individually slide in and out so they can offer more footing for my old friend. I still have to install the no skid indoor/outdoor carpet for step traction and stain the steps to match the interior boat stain. The only disadvantage to the new stairs is when I want to use the galley - then the ladder has to be put back to its original position allowing for galley usage but making the steps somewhat unusable.

In the down position

In the up position allowing Galley use

Of course all of this work took place at the end of last week - this week I caught the flu. It's amazing how you don't feel like refitting when you have the flu.

The boat is very comfortable... my contract with DISH is still in effect so they came out and mounted a dish on a dock pylon, and walla... I have TV, DVD, DVR, and HD.

My real Pirate Sword came in and is hanging on the bulkhead over the TV for decoration and if necessary, protection from Scallywags... ARRRRRRR!

I love living on the boat in the marina. When I do go cruising, these creature comforts will be whittled down considerably, but for now, plugged into shore power,... why not?

Fair seas and God bless!

New Home...New Head!

Well, now that we are in our new marina, our new home, the most necessary job was to install a new head. Yeah, not really a cool post but it's part of the refit process, so it gets blogged.

Remember, Annie has been on the hard for five plus years and I guess the installed head just dried out and gave up the stinky ghost sometime in those five years. Of course, I did not know the head was bad until she splashed and then there was no time to replace the existing head before the trip to our new marina.

Today, I tackled the job. I had to build a new platform due to the height of the old head verses the new head. Once that was complete, everything was hooked up and she is functional... sorta...

The Y-valve that directs waste overboard or to the holding tank is leaking. (That's not good and could be very unpleasant but I have flushed the system with clean water numerous times, so there's little or no smell).

Fortunately, I have a good friend who also owns a Westsail 32 and he has a Y-valve he wants to give me, (thanks Denis - you're the best). I'm not looking forward to replacing the leaky Y-valve but "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do", (pun intended). So tomorrow evening I will finish this nasty but necessary job and move on the the troubled bilge pump situation, (more on that in the near future).

Fair seas and God bless!

The water on the floor is from verifying the thru-hull wasn't clogged... Not what you thought...lol