Thursday, January 6, 2011

A YES! DAY

Coconut Grove, Miami, FL 25º43.532N | 80º14.193W



Today was brought to you by the word YES! If today had a soundtrack (other than drills and hammers) it would be Mary Chapin Carpenter's I Feel Lucky.

I don't know why it works this way, but some days when we start our chores, everything just falls into perfect order. Anyone who works on boats will appreciate how exquisitely odd this is. Our reaction: DO AS MANY CHORES AS WE CAN CRAM IN.

To start, I set out to replace the raw water hose that pulls sea water to the toilet for flushing. With best intentions I bought the supplies for this chore back at our home port in October. Today was the day. I estimated it would take about 45 minutes. In boat terms the equation goes like this: 45 x 3 = 135 minutes or two and a quarter hours.

We closed the sea cock and each disconnected one end of the hose.

Leaving me to my chore, Chip started disassembling the winch to oil it:


I cut a piece of dowel rod to connect the old raw water hose with the new one, a trick I read about to thread a new line.

Cut the dowel rod, being creative if you don't have a saw.

Insert half the dowel rod in the old hose and half in the new, and secure it with wood screws. Then, stick your head in the bilge and pull it through.

I removed the screws and dowel rod, cut the end off the new hose, attached each end with two hose clamps, opened the sea cock, and, you know what? It worked! Are you sure? Try it again. It's not leaking? Are you sure? Really?

Less than 45 minutes start to finish.

NEXT CHORE! RUN!

Winch oiled.
Anchor locker cleaned.
Christmas decorations stowed.
Mattress pad secured.
Refrigerator defrosted.
Toe rail plugs done.
Bird poop on deck cleaned off.
Dinghy lock and cable installed.

Chip took on the hand pump in the galley. It has never worked since we bought the boat. On inspection he discovered the intake hose had a hole in it. I volunteered to look through our stash of extra hose pieces.

I found one. It was the right diameter but what about the length?

YES! YES! YES!
Mmmm. I feel lucky today.

Coconut Grove, Miami, FL 25º43.532N | 80º14.193W

No comments:

Post a Comment