Painting and a dark night

This past weekend was a "man weekend" I guess. Tarne and Sarah stayed home and just Caleb and I went up to the boat for a working trip. We had big plans for the weekend to tackle one of the "to do" list items that I had been wanting to address for a long time. Yes...what could be more fun on a weekend of 95 degree temperatures than degreasing and painting the bilge?! :)

Caleb really loves doing these projects with me and dives right into them which is a great help on a practical level but also a lot of fun and a good way for us to spend one on one time together doing something we both really seem to enjoy. He is so helpful and truly seems to have fun doing boat projects. Painting a bilge is not exactly high on the glamour or excitement list but he sure enjoyed helping!

Here he is climbing into the engine room to scrape up the old paint that was peeling so that the new paint would adhere well.

And hard at work!

The forward bilge is not exactly easy to enter due to the holding tank being located there but he does fit in there easier than I do!

Some pictures of our handiwork....

I still have some more sections to paint but already just being able to see those two areas done is great! Degreasing and cleaning was a pain but the new paint will help keep things easier to clean and keep clean. Nothing like cleaning off 30 years of dirt and grime from a bilge to help you see the value of cleaning up a mess as soon as it happens. Now if we develop a leak or something we will be able to identify it immediately and address the issue.

After all of that was done Saturday evening it was time to relax....nice steak dinner...a cold drink...not a bad way to end our day. About 11 p.m. just as we were about to go to bed though we hear a big crash and bang and poof- all the lights on the dock go dark and we have no power. It seems someone had been drinking too much and subsequently decided to drive their truck when they should not have. He fell off one of the roads in the marina that is just above our dock parking lot. In falling down the embankment he also took out our transformer and he ploughed the nose of his truck into the pavement below and then ran off. The police ended up catching him. Luckily no one was hurt or killed and we got to watch him attempted his sobriety tests which was probably not so entertaining for him. It was a good moment to talk to Caleb about the consequences of our actions, being responsible, obeying the law, etc. as we watched them handcuff him and put him in the police cruiser.

Here is the driver just starting his failed testing:

Luckily power came back on around 5 a.m. It was so hot at night we ran the generator for an hour or two at the dock to power up the air conditioning. We felt bad for the family renting the cabins right next to our dock as they lost power and there is also a very nice couple with a beautiful Defever 49 Raised Pilothouse staying on our dock as transients for the next week or two and it's not fun loosing dock power in the middle of the night when it is roasting out both day and night! Just as I was getting up at 5 a.m. to turn our generator back on (didn't want to sleep with it on all night even though it is diesel!), the power turned back on. I was up anyway so I stayed up for a bit more to catch a beautiful sunrise.

To finish up the day today Caleb and I moved our wifi router to a better location. I had mounted it in the forward stateroom storage locker/closet but it did not seem to want to transmit much at that location so we moved it out of there into an out of the way place still in the forward stateroom and it seemed to work great there so we will see how that goes.

The big question lately is when and where to go cruising. We are leaning towards homeschooling again this fall which would substantially free up our schedule but then Caleb will also probably be doing fall baseball again so we shall see. It is so hot right now on the river cruising would require the generator running pretty much non stop to fight off the heat. We are thinking a trip up to Lake Tellico maybe soon and then this fall probably hitting the AGLCA rendezvous down in Alabama so stay tuned...more local cruising and boat projects until then!

4th of July

What a GREAT 4th of July!!! We had SUCH a good time aboard our trawler. We are still on the boat as I type this and have been here since Thursday which has been really fun. The new aft head installation has been great and makes the boat much more comfortable. Speaking of comfort, I finally got our new bimini top for the flybridge and installed it before the weekend. I had gotten quotes from a local firm to build a custom top for $1,500 which included fixing the bent frame. We fixed the frame with the help of a dock neighbor and ended up calling Overton's and ordered a new Sunbrella bimini that is not available online for a total cost of about $400-$450 which included the frame repair. Talk about a cost savings. Our comfort level has gone WAY up since we got the new bimini as we can sit in the shade at the flybridge helm which is nothing short of fabulous.

Here is a shot of the new top as we were are underway:

The kids have developed a new favorite boating activity which is sort of like tubing but behind the trawler. :) Basically- we either tow the tender or the kayak and let them ride in it (when it is not busy of course). To say the kids enjoy it would be huge understatement. We usually only do it when we are coming to or from the local cove we anchor in just around the bend from the marina:

Saturday we took some time out to go see the Chattanooga Aquarium and bought a family membership. Cost for a family of 4 to attend one day is about $80+ but you can get an annual pass good for the entire family for only $115 so in less tan 2 visits you pay have done better than breaking even. I made a friend while I was there:

Downtown Chattanooga is such a fun downtown. Caleb got to play drums with a man from Ghana:

Rest of the weekend we just played around the local waters and anchored out. Monday night, the 4th were the big fireworks on the water. We anchored out at about 5 p.m. which was later than we planned as a big rain storm rolled through in the afternoon. No sooner had we anchored out though then the crowds started showing up. Here is Sarah checking things out after we had set anchor:

And Caleb decided it was a good spot to fish:

You can tell how tired he (and Sarah) are from days on the boat swimming and playing from dawn til past dark:

Sarah cannot resist making funny faces....

Sun starting to go down and more boats anchoring. We ended up being pretty much in the perfect spot directly across from the fireworks:

The kids started to get comfortable on the trunk deck waiting for the show:

As Tarne and I sat at the table on the aft bridge deck with a glass of wine and our lantern:

The neighbors across the cove decided they would put on their own little show which made for a good picture:

Fireworks start and the kids made comfy beds on the trunk deck:

AWESOME fireworks!

The show was truly amazing. It is done by a private individual that lives on the lake and not a municipal show. Thus, the height of the fireworks was slightly less than a "real" show but I kid you not, it was probably the best fireworks show I've ever seen. It went on for right at an hour and a half and it was non stop. It was basically as intense as having an hour and a half grand finale. The pictures don't do it justice at all but it was a great, great show and professionally done and never a pause the entire time.

Here is a short video of the fireworks taken from my iPhone:

Tuesday we went back to the aquarium for another fun day to see the butterfly house and saltwater fish. As well, we went to go see the Imax movie, "Born to Be Wild" in 3D. The kids loved it. I have an app on my iphone camera that lets you take funny pictures that the kids simply love. So we passed our few moments in line by taking some fun pictures with their huge 3D glasses on:

All in all, a great week on the boat (yes, we've been on the boat for a solid week!). We were contemplating cruising up to Lake Telico this week but forecast is very hot and 50% chance rain every day so we are going to hold off for better whether. Home to Atlanta today it looks like then back up this weekend. "Living Light" is quickly becoming our home away from home on the water.

New aft head installed!

Well, another boat project is done! I mentioned briefly in my last post that we were going to install new heads. I decided to go a step at a time and just do the aft head first, see how we like it, then do the front head and possibly add a second holding tank for the aft head. The new head arrived at the house earlier this week. I pondered whether to wait until after the 4th of July to install just in case something went wrong and we'd be left with only the forward head. After reading through the instructions, looking everything over, and talking to the Raritan tech support to answer a few questions, I decided to go for it. So, about 2:00 P.M. today I tore into the project. I finished right at about 7 or 7:30 so about a 5 hour job but that included a trip the hardware store in town, a trip the marina ship's store, as well as taking the boat over to the fuel dock to pump out the holding tank. The hardest part was dealing with a very cramped area to install the plumbing, wiring, etc.

After researching the current products on the market, we opted to go with Raritan's "Marine Elegance." This is an electric head with vacuum technology incorporated. Tearing out the old head was not hard- close off the raw water thru-hull so as to not flood the boat, remove a few bolts, loosen a few clamps, and poof- the head is sitting on the dock. Only problem was I didn't pump out the holding tank prior to starting so there was some, um, er....residual fluids in the discharge line at the point of connection. NOT pretty and definitely not pleasantly aromatic! The big change for the new head, beyond the improved technology, is converting from raw water flush (i.e. pulling water up from the body of water the boat is sitting in to flush) to fresh water flush (i.e. it ties into the fresh water system which ties into our 200 gallon water tanks. Raw water flush is not a terrible set up if you are in a freshwater system such as we are in here on the Tennessee River but if you are in salt water it can lead to some problems and can definitely mean things smell more as the little microbes in the salt water die. Isn't this a fun topic??!! Hahaha.....

Anyway, our new head is in. I tied into the vanity sink cold water service line right next to the head. We got the "smart flush" controls which lets you control how the unit works and how much water it uses. Everything mounted where the old unit and switches were at so it pretty much looks like it has always been there. Tying into the freshwater system required tying into the 3/8 PEX plumbing line and bumping it up to 1/2" line to serve the head (AKA toilet for our land friends). These fittings are readily available at the local hardware store. I had to reroute the wiring for the old head to bypass the old single push button switch and tie into the new control panel and controls. One thing is for sure- this old boat is really improving my ability to work on marine systems- a couple of years ago I would have had no idea how to do this install!

Here is a picture of our old Jabsco electric head....I have no idea how old it was? It was made of plastic whereas our new unit is all porcelain just like a real land toilet. :)

And during the tear out process. I had to remove the old teak platform that the old head sat on as the new Marine Elegance unit we bought is a "tall" model which sits right on the floor of the head.

Mounting bracket for the new head installed and ready to reroute the 12V wiring to under and inside the vanity cabinet/sink and connect the plumbing.

And finally...our new vacuum/electric head installed! It's small but a lot bigger than our old Jabsco electric head. Most marine heads are smaller than a normal household toilet but our new head is a regular household sized unit.

And our "Smart Flush Controls," mounted where the old push button control was located for the Jabsco. It ties into the control module inside the adjoining cabinet via an ethernet cable. You can choose between "normal flush," "water saver flush," "water only" (i.e. just fill the bowl with more water), or "empty only."

We will see how we like it compared to our old Jabsco's. So far it is definitely quieter and nicer. I suspect the kids will soon be insisting we replace their head with the same unit for their bathroom!

My wife and the kids are on their way up to the boat as I type this and in addition to yummy vittles and happiness, they are also bringing up our new flybridge bimini top which will hopefully fit our old frame since the old top was destroyed in the tornados that came through the southeast back in April. It's supposed to be hot this weekend so we are going to need it!

Stay tuned.....