Although Britannia is well suited for off shore passage making, there's still a list of projects we'd like to finish before taking off. Some are simple, others difficult, and still others just a stinky mess. We try to spend three nights a week on the boat so the first order of business was taking care of the boat smell: that mixture of head and
diesel oil. (For non-boat people the head is the bathroom.)
Our boat has one head and a system of sanitation hoses that allows us to pump waste into a holding tank or over board. (Boats must be three miles off shore to pump over board). Many of the hoses were cracked and smelly and the clamps holding them on were rusty. Krister spent a weekend replacing the whole system: which meant multiple trips to West Marine (the Home Depot for boats) and too much time near moldy poop.
We had replaced one cracked portlight (window) in late summer which made us realize how dingy and yellow the old ones were. Although it wasn't in our budget to replace them all with new ones, we had the good fortune of finding our exact portlights in great condition for sale on Craigslist. What a deal! Lots of sunshine, but now we need curtains.
The last thing we needed to do to banish the boat smell was to scrub the bilge. Sounds easy enough right? Except that all the 25 year old screws had to be taken out to remove the floor boards. Krister relished the fact that he would have to buy tools to do the job. I believe he had way too much fun using his new extraction driver. Krister scrubbed and oiled all the floor boards, while I washed years of dirt and grim away and wiped the bilge completely dry. Amazing!
As luck would have it, our upper shrouds did not withstand the previous weekend's 45 knot blow with Joe and began to fray badly. Britannia has been at the rigger all week to have all the standing rigging replaced. I miss our boat, but we should have her back tomorrow- just in time for a weekend sail and more projects.
Although Britannia is well suited for off shore passage making, there's still a list of projects we'd like to finish before taking off. Some are simple, others difficult, and still others just a stinky mess. We try to spend three nights a week on the boat so the first order of business was taking care of the boat smell: that mixture of head and diesel oil. (For non-boat people the head is the bathroom.)
Our boat has one head and a system of sanitation hoses that allows us to pump waste into a holding tank or over board. (Boats must be three miles off shore to pump over board). Many of the hoses were cracked and smelly and the clamps holding them on were rusty. Krister spent a weekend replacing the whole system: which meant multiple trips to West Marine (the Home Depot for boats) and too much time near moldy poop.
We had replaced one cracked portlight (window) in late summer which made us realize how dingy and yellow the old ones were. Although it wasn't in our budget to replace them all with new ones, we had the good fortune of finding our exact portlights in great condition for sale on Craigslist. What a deal! Lots of sunshine, but now we need curtains.
The last thing we needed to do to banish the boat smell was to scrub the bilge. Sounds easy enough right? Except that all the 25 year old screws had to be taken out to remove the floor boards. Krister relished the fact that he would have to buy tools to do the job. I believe he had way too much fun using his new extraction driver. Krister scrubbed and oiled all the floor boards, while I washed years of dirt and grim away and wiped the bilge completely dry. Amazing!
As luck would have it, our upper shrouds did not withstand the previous weekend's 45 knot blow with Joe and began to fray badly. Britannia has been at the rigger all week to have all the standing rigging replaced. I miss our boat, but we should have her back tomorrow- just in time for a weekend sail and more projects.
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