That's Why We Test!

Installed corrugated stainless steel gas line between the Force 10's 3/8" male flare fitting and Nellie's 5/16" flared cap (female fitting.

 The good news is that changing out Vacuflush parts is becoming easier and easier to do. The bad news is that I was working on the head again today. I'm pretty sure that the vacuum leak is at the el under the toilet. It's a very slow leak as the vacuum pump comes on maybe once in four hours and then only for seconds. Today I took out the makeshift el and installed a proper PVC one. Had to use a heat gun on the white toilet hose to make it easier to get the connectors in.

That's why we test! After filling the holding tank with water until it overflowed from the deck plate, we found two leaks in the system. Much better to find the leaks now with clean water than later with … ;-) after fixing the leaks a re-test revealed nothing but dry joints.

Relocated all the life jackets from the top of the stateroom's hanging locker to underneath the salon's settee. Still easy access and reduces clutter. Speaking of clutter, the storage location for the the pilothouse's floor and nav table inserts is now on top of the genset. At least while at the dock this keeps the pilothouse bench foot rest clutter free.

Replaced the starboard davit's 4mm wire rope with 3/16" Amsteel-Blue. Reused the wire rope's thimble and wove it into place using a fid made from a 6mm knitting needle ($2.50/pair at Walmart). The needle is hollow and when cut to about 4" long, worked perfectly. Some nylon whipping, from the thimble up the falls 4", keeps the stainless weights from rubbing on the Amsteel-Blue.

Covered the chain-locker-side of the doors at the end of the bunk with an insulated plastic sheet. This helps keeps water spray and odors in the chain locker.

Scraped more loose gel coat from the hull. Started to put black bottom paint on just the bare spots but have decided to go ahead and put bottom paint on the entire bottom. Need more paint.

The stateroom is finished! The mattress cover was washed, air dried and sprayed with a deodorant. The new polished brass lights were re-installed. The new bedspread and new throw pillows were put fashionably in place.

Installed a new bronze Kohler sink faucet. Redid all the cable ties holding the saltwater and water tank vent lines to the back of the kitchen sink cabinet. Believe it on not, the back cabinet is made of teak.