Another hot day

It's been pretty hot lately, and the forecast for tomorrow calls for a high of 90. If that turns out to be the case, I won't be able to go over to Columbia to take the Amateur Extra exam. On top of the heat, thunder storms are also forecast, so I'd have to close the cover, and there's no way I'll leave Zoe on board under those conditions. Chances are, it wouldn't get too hot in the cabin, but I don't want to take a chance. It's only around 85 right now, but it's around 100 on deck and at least 90 in the cabin. The cover acts like an oven even when it's open, but it can really get hot when it's closed.

Not sure when I'll be able to remove the cover, but I have to get the deck finished and everything remounted first. I still need to finish sanding and fill in a few more holes before I can paint. It's pretty close, but I'm not sure when it will actually be done. I've been working on plumbing in the cabin and bilge while it's hot. I have two fresh water tanks, one in the lockers under the v-berth, and the other under the cabin sole. The bottom tank is gravity fed from the upper one and originally had just a manual valve to control it. Without a valve, the bottom tank could overflow and leak into the bilge. The previous owner used electrical tape to seal some of the connections and added a hose to the vent to keep that from happening. I've gotten rid of the tape and the other fill line, and will add a float valve to control the lower tank water level. That should solve the problem in a semi elegant manner.

I'm also going to replace all the hoses and clean the tanks. I haven't ordered the float valve yet, but will go ahead and clean the tanks, replace the hoses, install the new pump, and reinstall the old valve as a temporary solution. I'll just watch the tank fill and turn off the valve as soon as it fills up. Hope to have that all finished tomorrow.

I've also decided to go ahead and install a small 6 gallon holding tank. Gill said he'd just let me have the old one he's got in his store. It's new, but has been sitting on the shelf so long, it's dusty inside and looks used. Since he can't sell it as new, he said he'd just give it to me if I could use it. It will just fit in the locker, but may be difficult to hook up. However, I need one to be legal, so this is the best short-term solution.

The only other plumbing I'm planning to do before leaving is to run the freshwater intake to the hand pump at the galley sink. I'll also add shutoff and check valves to it so that I can use it for both the head and the sinks without loosing pressure. Since it's non-potable water, I may be able to use some of the old hose. The head sink has both hot and cold water hose that runs from the galley that might be okay to reuse. I may also add a trap to the line to keep it from getting clogged.

I replaced the bilge pump hose yesterday and was able to pump the bilge. The boat had two pumps, one for the bilge and one for the shower basin. They were inter-connected with y-valves so that you could use either one to pump either the shower or bilge. This was a bit too complex for me, and meant that hoses and valves were all over the place -- it was a big mess. Since a manual pump will be my backup system (I'll have three, one in the cabin, one in the cockpit, and a hand held one just in case) so I don't need a extra electric pump (I'll have two now, a small submersible one to keep the bilge dry, and the large one I'm working on now). In an emergency, I can also run the engine and run it's intake hose into the bilge I may try to setup a valve for that as well so I can use the current filter. I'll keep the other pump as a backup, but won't hook it up unless the good one fails.

Once I got the new hose hooked up and started pumping, the pump got clogged. I had to remove it and take it apart to clear it. It also clogged up the line further up, so I had to remove and clear it too. But once that was done, I pumped the bilge down to about an inch. I'll also replace that section of bilge pump hose once I remount the pump -- didn't like it's current location -- and install the submersible one. Once I remove the other one, there will be a lot more room in the locker. That will make it a lot safer too, since I'll be able to inspect and work on stuff. Before I started removing the old system, it was impossible to work on it.

I had filled the main freshwater tank all the way up and was letting it overflow into the bilge to clean out the gunk. I'll do it again this evening and will also pump it dry with the new fresh water pump tomorrow a few times to see if I can get it completely clean. The upper tank should be in better shape, since it probably stays dry most of the time, but I'll need to move a bunch of stuff to get to the inspection plate before I'll know for sure. I'm going run detergent and bleach through them until they're clean and smell fresh.

Zoe watch:

Zoe's hanging out under the boat trying to stay cool. She's been crawling under the vegetation next to the fence lately, but that gets direct sunlight in the afternoon, so under the boat is better. It also gets a better breeze, which should help. I brushed her this afternoon, and plan to shave her down again this evening. It's just too hot for all that black hair. My hair's starting to grow out a bit too, so I may trim it up a bit too. I'm also thinking about getting her a little plastic pool. I'll check the super market later to see if they have any. Just something for her to get in and get wet is all I'm looking for.

She used to love getting into the pool at the Leroy St. dog run in Manhattan. She'd just stand in the water and keep biting her ball. It's a really soft chewy one that floats but can't be destroyed. She likes to bit and sink it, then wait for it to float back up to the surface and do it again. The ball is empty, so it sinks easily and just floats barely above the surface. The only problem was that it was a very popular ball and sometimes the bigger dogs would steal it and not give it back. I'd have to retrieve it for her, which must have confused her -- she can't seem to understand that I'm the boss, not her. But I don't mind -- she's a great dog.