More water works...

Yesterday was day four of the one day service and fire up the water system job, and the task is not quite done. Parts that have been replaced include the head sink and shower faucet assemblies, the water lines to the shower, and the water lines to the swim platform shower. We also installed an additional filter for a drinking water faucet in the galley.  The leaks at the faucet assemblies laughed at new seals and “O” rings, thus the shiny new replacements. 

The old faucet with the old flat shelf that collected water which leaked past the very old, dry
caulking and showing the old pipe/hose combination.

The two water lines to the shower faucet caused a bit of a chuckle. One was marked “freon” and the other “heater”. The freon line was on the cold water side, and the heater one on the hot water side, so there is that. Both were so badly degraded that it is a wonder the water waited to reach the faucets before escaping and running to the bilge and on to its ocean home. (Which, come to think of it, it might have been doing.) A good bit of rotten wood and nearly as rotten craftsmanship was discovered when we pulled the panels holding the shower faucet. Said panels are being replaced with $80 worth of custom fitted ½ inch star board. That is the part of the job not quite finished yesterday as incoming weather interrupted the work day.

What was left of the rotten flat shelf

The leaks at the swim platform shower would have been a lot easier fix if the person who had installed the cover plate had actually positioned the access cover over the fittings. But with the plate removed, all that was visible were two sorry-looking copper pipes with the fittings themselves tucked out of sight. I struggled with it for a day or so then slipped off the end of my rope. The six inch access hole with the deteriorated and ugly looking cover went away, replaced by a nine inch shiny white cover through which one can actually see and touch the fittings. The last four feet or so of the hot water line fell to the metal blade of the magic tool to be replaced (as was to cold water side) with a new piece of flexible tubing clamped onto the copper tube at an accessible location in the cockpit stowage area.

As mentioned, the last of the water work—that being the shower rebuild—got interrupted by an incoming cold front and a whole different kind of water work. The winds cranked up in excess of 25 knots, sending rolling waves into the marina that struck First Light on the port bow, causing her to pitch and twist like an angry horse trying to get free of her stall. During the worse pitch & rolls the starboard rail was just touching the forward piling, another couple of inches and the rail would have landed on top of the piling, certainly destroying it and likely damaging the deck. At the stern, the hard top over the back deck was just brushing the aft piling. With help from the Skipper on the boat next door and timing with the rolls, we shortened up the port side bow and stern lines, trying not to loose a finger or break a wrist in the process. Down below was a bit of chaos as well as unsecured items were tossed all over the living spaces, particularly in the galley. We had some wild rides in Kintala as well, but I don't recall her every trying to bash herself to death on the pilings. It was a close call.

During a slight lull between the not-forecasted winds and the very much forecasted incoming line of thunderstorms, I hustled over to the store and bought $100 worth of new dock line. With help from the Skipper of our neighbor boat once again, Deb and I fixed the new line low on the pilling, up through the fairlead, and over to the cleat. As soon as that line was snug, First Light settled down. We still pitched and rolled but with far less enthusiasm. Once the winds had faded to a gentle breeze we reset the second port bow line down low as well. We also reset the forward spring lines to help support the bow line loads. There are now eleven lines tasked with keeping First Light in her watery corral. 

I couldn't take a video during the worst of it. This was after it had calmed.

The incoming line of storms being shoved along by the cold front looked menacing on the weather app and came with a forecast of some serious ugly. But other than a few really spectacular lighting bolts they  passed without near the drama of the afternoon's tussle. I have to admit to liking riding out such conditions being surrounded by really tall lightning rods - aka sailboat masts - rather than being one of those lightning rods.

As I finish writing this, we were able to finish up the shower rebuild today and can now move on to seeing if the head and holding tank actually work. I'm not holding my breath. (Though I very well might be, depending on what we discover.) Still, we are making progress, and are feeling pretty good about having handled the challenge of yesterday and getting off without a scratch.

Ta Da!

We needed one of the smallish grandkids to help install this filter back behind the sink

We chased down the shower sump location (in the engine room under a
hatch cover under a foam pad). and discovered it was full of moldy slimy water.

A little elbow grease and some Better Life All Purpose Cleaner (seriously if you haven't tried it,
you absolutely should stop what you're doing and order some) and it was clean and
shiny and smelled good.