The Adventure Continues

An apology to my avid reader(s) who might be offended by less than 'correct' language.  We have been very busy with various projects (more later) so have had little time or energy left to write and post updates.

A 'few' packages awaited our arrival.

We arrived on-board ARRLUK late on Tuesday evening (2-5) after flying all day and managing to fit our huge luggage load into the rental ... truck.  Well a extended Yukon is technically a truck; thank god for fold-away seats!  The boat was dark and surprisingly clean inside except for the huge pile of flat rate boxes in one corner of the Salon. We hoisted our heavy bags on-board and staggered to bed for a good night's sleep.
Wednesday was unpack and stow-away day, as well as taking a good look at just what we were currently calling "home."  While ARRLUK was clean and tidy on the inside (if you don't count the little piles of dead bugs in various corners and out of the way places), she was filthy on the outside:  Weather had taken its toll;  Teak varnish peeling, fiberglass oxidized and filthy, green slime growing on the decks and sides and a dingy that looked like the Hindenburg, post crash.

On Wednesday, 2/6, we ventured out to our local marine supply who was kindly storing our order of a new 8-Man Off-Shore life raft, the new washer/dryer combo unit, sea anchor, Delorme tracking system and various pieces of survival equipment. We learned how to use the boom and davit system on the top deck to hoist up the 200 lbs life raft to the upper boat deck, only to discover we didn't order the required deck cradle for it as part of the order.  Oh well, I guess we will learn to read the fine print on the product descriptions. We also discovered the propane stove wouldn't lite, in spite of a full tank on the top deck with over 90# of pressure in the line.  That problem remains unresolved, but further diagnosed, as I post tonight's blog.

Thursday and Friday, 2/7 & 2/8, were stormy and rainy ... the same storm that headed north and dumped feet of snow in the Northeastern US.  We had to laugh after our Alaskan experiences at how a few feet of snow was expected to bring everything in the NE to a total standstill.  We spent those days on the inside cleaning up, opening the remaining boxes (Merry Christmas!) and continuing our indoor projects.  The old washing machine and stacking dryer turned out to be nearly a day's worth of work to dismantle piece by piece in order to remove it from its "built-in" position.  The guys at the marina were very patient with us, but none too happy to find their dumpster full of appliance skeletons and parts the next morning!

Captain Bob Giving some TLC to the Tender

Kathy wondering, "I this how Cinderella really got her start?"

The new fridge we ordered from Home Depot was supposed to be delivered on 2/7, but they called to reschedule for 2/9 ... which was OK, as we could live with the big ice chest we brought with us for a while.  Unfortunately, on 2/8, the manufacturer's rep called and said they no longer made the unit I bought and they would be happy to substitute the latest version which they could deliver about the end of the month.  Obviously that wasn't going to work, as we were leaving Savannah for warmer points south about the 15th.  Later in the day someone from Home Depot called to "reschedule our appliance delivery."  I was overly kind to the caller who apparently hadn't read the fine print on her computer screen that said, "We don't make it anymore and are NEVER going to deliver this item to this customer!"  I did get my revenge as the fools sent me a "random customer service survey" request via e-mail that I was only too eager to assist them with, shall we say, "Constructive Criticism."  We arrived home after our travels to discover the toilets (2 of them on-board  no longer flushed ... NOT GOOD.

Alex pondering his next cleaning assignement

Finally, Saturday, 2/9 and Sunday the 10th were glorious days of sunshine, something we hadn't see for many long months:  We ventured outside and started the exterior cleaning of the boat.  The kids tackled the decks, supervised by Mom, while I took on the dingy/tender.  I am still amazed at how kids can "finish" a task in record time, only to be redirected and spend twice the time they could have invested initially, by doing the job thoroughly and "right" the first time.  By the end of today all exterior surfaces of the boat, save the port side which is inaccessible facing the water and the aft lazarette deck which has loads of equipment and appliances awaiting their install, was clean and temporarily shiny.  I got the dingy re-inflated, cleaned up and conditioned so it looked great.  We then used the boom system to lower it into the water (not without a bit of hollering and cussing at the boys who just couldn't quite understand what "hold this rope and pull this away from the side of the boat," meant.  Tomorrow, we will paddle the dingy over to the boatyard and pick up the outboard, which was overhauled this winter and has been stored in the workshop until we arrived.

Matthew; "So much slime, so little time."

Today, my attention was diverted from "get the stove working," to, "get the DAMN toilets working "  Assuming it was a simple matter (Remember what they say about ASS-U-ME ing) I had the marina staff come over and pump out our tank.  After about 10 gallons of "stuff" were removed and no improvement, I cracked open the stinky holding tank only to find it was empty.  Time to crack open the user manual and Trouble Shooting Guide! I began my work below decks armed with a handful of tools.  What I ended up with was a face full of shit and below deck spaces covered in stinky slime.  We learned a valuable lesson today about waste;  when left to sit in pipes and pumps it turns into a rock-hard substance that is almost indestructible.

Can you believe this "Shit?"

Tomorrow's project include replacing all of the "sanitary" flexible tubing (Why they call it sanitary when it is the exact opposite, I'll never understand) and final troubleshooting of our propane issue;  we are all praying that it is not the stove, as that will be yet another expensive appliance repair on top of the very stinky and expensive "sanitary tubing" project.