As I have been repeatedly saying in our videos, we still have a lot of work to do. At the same time, we have been checking things off the list everyday and in seemingly quicker fashion than expected. So, what exactly remains to be accomplished?
First, we need to finish the entire raw water system. This was a project we started back in January in an effort to eliminate the awful smell that emerges anytime we turn on one of the washdown pumps. Apparently, the smell is a result of dead saltwater microorganisms in the hoses. Once we started in on the project, though, we realized that many of the fittings were brass, not bronze, and badly corroded with, in many cases, holes in them barely covered by the hoses. After working on various parts of the system, we still need to replace the hose from the washdown pump, which is in the bow, to the aft washdown hose, which is back in the stern. The hose runs through the bilge and is sure to be a pain in the butt to replace. After that, we need to hook up all the hoses to a cross fitting, secure the fitting in the bilge, and run a short length of hose from there to the nipple coming off the seacock.
With commissioning in mind, we also need to exercise all our seacocks and lube them with silicon spray from the outside. At the same time, we intend to replace all the clamps holding the hoses to the thru-hull fittings. Some are in worse shape than others, but after our experience with the raw water fittings, we decided that it was a wise move to replace them all. We don’t expect to find any further problems while doing this, but that is always a possibility.
I started in on the reinstalling the galley sink this evening and made some good progress. However, we still need to finish that project, securing the last of the drain hoses and then reconnecting the freshwater – hot and cold pressurized and cold foot pump – hoses to the faucets. We also need to do several other small jobs like tighten the salon table, secure the backstay chainplate bolts, clean and tighten the stanchion bases I re-bedded, and reinstall the autopilot. None of these are too big of jobs on their own, but they do add up.
As I have mentioned in one of the recent videos, I also have to repack the stuffing box. But, as I now know since I read up on the procedure and talked to someone in the yard, I first need to take out all of the old stuffing so that I know the size of the stuffing I need to purchase.
The really big project, though, is the rigging. We have to replace all the wire rigging using Sta-Lok. Further, we need to setup our new running checkstays. We also have several other jobs related to the rigging and mast like setting up our lazy jacks, replace some of the electrical wire that we chafed while pulling the mast, and reattaching all the mast fittings. Everyone who has used Sta-Lok before keeps telling me how easy this job is going to be, but even if it is as simple as advertised, it is still going to be quite time consuming with all the measuring and re-measuring.
Margaret also has a few jobs that she needs to finish that I am only vaguely familiar with such as refinishing our salon table and re-caulking our aft starboard cockpit hatch.
So, that is our list of projects that we need to finish before splashing in about ten days. Of course, there are a bunch of other things we can do if we have the time, but these are the more essential jobs. Wish us luck and follow along here on the blog and on YouTube as we complete these projects.