Tackling more smelly jobs!
After Baz got the black water holding tank out of the forward sail locker to be fixed last week, someone had to go in and clean up the leakage aka poo, from the sides and bottom of the bilge where the chocolaty goodness had seeped out from rusty seams in the tank. What a glamorous job. I double-bagged my gloves after my first attempt tore on the rough surfaces in the locker exposing my delicate haha hands to pooy water. Fortunately, the smell had left over the months, but it wasn’t a nice experience getting literally down and dirty as I found more ways to stretch my arms and swivel my hips to get at the hard to reach places.
While I spent the best part of two hours, one bottle of serious disinfectant and several buckets of water getting rid of poo – and also mould from the sides and roof of the sail locker, Baz was getting acquainted with his own toilet task: Removing the outlet pipe in the aft day heads to get rid of any calcium build up which would block the loo.
We both finished about the same time as each other, and despite my particular task, I think Baz came out looking more sweaty and smelling more rancid than I did!
Pipe removed (not without a fight), and lots of spillage from the toilet outlet pipe (which to be fair Baz had tried to mop up with paper towel), it was my job as Clean Up Crew to go in and make the aft heads sparkle too. I used Brillean for this and to my absolute surprise, rust stains from the loo that had stubbornly refused to shift despite all efforts since we bought A B Sea, were wiped away almost in an instant. Is there nothing this stuff can’t handle? We’re looking forward to removing rust stains off the GRP decking when we get to that job.
After that we retreated to the studio 50 metres away from the boat, so Baz could research new toilet hoses and I could make dinner. I’ve found some yummy and easy vegan recipes using pulses and tasty spices that we have a couple of times a week. I love vegan food, they’re so creative and make simple food taste great. It’s also heart healthy and we substitute meat with vegan recipes about 5 out of 7 days now.
That’s quite extraordinary considering Baz was a die-hard meat eater. But after a few experiments, I’ve got a nice variety of vegan and vegetarian recipes that he eats with relish. And sometimes chilli sauce. Haha, did you spot the deliberate pun there?
Bow thruster battery
Now the sail locker was clean (and I had fun editing in some sparkles and shine to the footage of both sail locker and day heads), Baz was free to check the bow thruster battery that lives under the sail locker floor. It was dead with an underwhelming charge of 1.17 volts. Fortunately he was able to use our old spare battery (left over from when we had to get new ones in Athens a few months ago) to do the job. We do need to find out how it gets charged though – via shore power or running the engine - so we can ensure it remains topped up and working.
That done, Baz checked the inner workings of the bow thruster mechanism, then headed down the ladder and replaced the anode on the bow thruster blade.
Another job ticked off the list.
Home sweet home
Soon after that, we moved back on board. It’s great being at home - although it was also cool staying in the studio over winter - and we are fortunate to be able to still use the toilet/shower and freezer in our old studio, for the cost of electricity. I love being home though, as we have our shared space, but also different living areas so we aren’t always on top of each other.
Solving storage space
Since we’ve been at Limni, I’ve had a few shipments from Amazon, topping up jewellery making supplies and also buying uv resin, uv lamp and torch and molds, so that I can extend my sea jewellery range (very exciting). Not to mention my growing shell and pebble collection now.
However, I when I brought everything back from the studio and looked at the size of my art cupboard, I seriously wondered how I’d get everything to fit in there. That’s one challenge of living on a boat – or any tiny house living really. Only having what you need. And being able to store it. And it’s particularly important on a yacht that heels when sailing that everything can be stowed away in lockable storage space.
Over the afternoon, I solved the problem by commandeering the bottom of my wardrobe to store my travelling easel and my Dremel and drill bits. That of course meant chucking out a couple of pairs of shoes I haven’t worn since we move on board, and rearranging the shoes I do have – stacking them up on one side. So far so good.
Everything else miraculously fitted into the art cupboard! I was pretty amazed and very grateful because I really didn’t want to throw anything else out. What I’ve got in there is all necessary and I now know where everything is.
Rain, rain and deliveries
It’s pretty much rained every day since we moved back on board! Oh well. At least we know the place is water tight.
One day after visiting the loo, I popped into the office and discovered a couple of deliveries for Baz. He would be excited.
He was, but excitement turned to disappointment when he realised only one of the two hoses he’d ordered had arrived. That meant an email conversation with the supplier in Athens, but it wouldn’t be too hard to fix. The hose that arrived was the one for ‘his’ day heads, and we’d have to wait for the holding tank hose to arrive.
The other parcel contained the galvanic isolator which Baz was very excited to receive but will talk about in another video. The other item in that box was the cutlass bearing for the propeller shaft. Now that has arrived we can fit all of the prop, stern gland and cutlass bearing parts back in, and reattach the prop shaft to the gear box.
Then Baz can attach the turbo, air intake and exhaust system back onto the engine. And that will be a major job completed.
House Martins stop over on migration
One morning we discovered hundreds of small, forked tail birds flying around the studio apartment block, and roosting on every roof, ledge and railing they could find. One yacht next to the studios was also inundated with birds. I wouldn’t want to be the one to clean the bird poo off that deck!
If you’d like to see the video that accompanies this blog, just click here.
Next week
The rain continued for a few days, but as I type this blog, we have had sunshine for a couple of days which is wonderful and despite the accompanying cold northerly winds, it makes for a brighter outlook.
I even got to try out my new mangle / hand wringer with some laundry and you’ll get to see that Mr Bean-like episode next week. In the meantime a big thank you for reading this, and enjoy the video.
Stay safe and healthy.
