Summer in Baltimore

—Blogpost written by Bob

Friday, July 9

When we woke up today (Friday, July 10) the sky was overcast due to the imminent arrival of Tropical Storm Fay.  The outside temperature was in the mid to upper 70’s.  Baltimore is pretty far away from the storm's predicted path--all we expected was a little bit of rain today.

 The current position of Tropical Storm Fay.
It formed off the coast of the Carolinas
and was progressing up the East
Coast of the U.S toward 
New England.

Since I’ve been a real “slacker” with respect to my boat projects lately, I decided to get right on top of a couple projects over the next two days. Today, my goal was to redo the raw water inlet header for the A/C since it was cool enough outside that we could do without the A/C for a couple hours.

The raw water intake header is located beneath the floorboards beneath the companionway. Earlier in the week I bought bronze pipe fittings for the new raw water inlet header at Fawcetts in Annapolis. I decided to replace the old plastic (nylon) fittings with bronze ones. (I’ve had several plastic fittings fail over my many years of boating and I don’t want any failures in the raw water inlet header because it could cause our boat to sink. I’ve never experienced any problem whatsoever with bronze fittings. I still had to use one plastic 90-degree elbow because I didn’t think the elbow was needed when I purchased the bronze fittings.)

I preassembled the main portion of the header ahead of time, using PTFE tape to seal all the threaded connections.

I had to modify the end of the preassembled inlet
header—the end that connects to the raw water
pump (top) because the hose was a bit to
short to make the 180-degree bend.

After removing the floorboard, I dissembled all the pipe fittings and water hoses. We opened the area under the galley sink and reconnected the inlet hose at this seacock rather than under the head sink because I thought I would get a shorter inlet hose run (which I did). 

We left the inlet hose to the water maker disconnected for now—this will be another project later in the summer.  The inlet hose for the supplemental fridge cooling was left disconnected too (middle left side of image below) because of another future project, adding a dedicated raw water strainer and replacing the supplemental cooling pump.

By 11 AM we had this project completed!  After removing some marine growth from the (reused) inlet hose (it blocked the hose completely) the A/C was back in operation and working like a champ.

The reworked raw water inlet
system for our A/C unit.

In the afternoon I tackled a project to change out the cracked hinges on the lid of our composting toilet.  In the process I misplaced one of the nylon bolts that hold the hinges to the toilet--they are almost identical to the ones in household toilets.  So, I walked to the nearby Ace Hardware store and picked up a pack of two.  I didn't realize ahead fo time that I had to completely disassemble the toilet to change the toilet lid hinges.  So, I had a little "mission creep" that extended to emptying the solids container along the way.  This little normal 10-minute project took 2-1/2 hours to complete!

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I am currently reading a (Kindle) book entitled Getting Real About Getting Older.  It was written by Linda Stroh and Karen Brees.  I purchased this book because I feel like I’ve aged 5 years in just the past 5 months and I wanted to understand why.  It seems like all of a sudden, I feel (and look) old.  I’ve also noticed that I am more easily frustrated by little things, let alone big things like the divided state of our country and the continuing coronavirus pandemic.  (I am only about a third of the way into this book, so I can't really comment on it yet.)

The cover of the book I
am currently reading.

Saturday, July 11

It rained briefly (but very hard) last night.  When we got up (6:15 AM) the sky was still mostly overcast and the temperature was in the low 70's.  The weather forecast is for a high of 93 degrees this afternoon--so, I need to get any planned boat projects for the day started early this morning.

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I managed to complete a very small project (reversing the wires on one of the new fans I recently installed) before making a lot of measurements for next week’s projects. I measured the length of cap screws I need for replacements on our swim ladder and measured hose diameters and length for replacing inlet hoses to the head sink. (These hoses under the head sink are the last of the original gray colored plastic hoses that are prone to leakage at their connections.)

The very last of the original gray
plastic hoses--these hoses
under the head sink will
finally be replaced
next week!

I also measured the black sliding cabinet doors above both settees (they were slightly different from one side to the other) in preparation for ordering new mirrored sliding doors. (We are doing this to make the boat interior feel larger and lighter.)

The black sliding cabinet doors above
the settees will be replaced with
ones constructed from
mirrored acrylic.

When all my measurements were completed we tried removing the starboard stanchion base for the stanchion that was bent and I was planning to replace. However, it wouldn’t come off, even using a big hammer (my favorite boat tool). 

The lifeline stanchion is the vertical stainless
steel tubing while the stanchion base is
the gray aluminum casting.  The
two bolts we tried to remove
go through the deck.

I bought some PB Blaster specifically for this purpose but Maggie put it away somewhere but she couldn’t remember where.  A 15-minute search produced nothing.  So, this project was placed on hold until we get another can of PB Blaster to loosen up the stainless steel bolts from the aluminum stanchion base.

Sunday, July 12

I swore that I wouldn't work on any boat projects on Sundays and that Sundays would be essentially days off.  We'll see if I can stick to this pledge today.  There was only one minor thing that I wanted to do--to determine if the platform under our v-berth mattress was sufficiently flat or if the unevenness could have been causing the discomfort I've experienced in my hips.  (I am certainly started off my day right--I added a shot of Rum Chata to my coffee!)

After a light breakfast onboard (bagels with cream cheese), we disassembled our v-berth, removing the mattress and the anti-condensation pad beneath the mattress.  We checked the flatness all around with a yardstick but it was perfectly flat (even with my weight on the platform).  We concluded that the platform under our v-berth could not have been causing the discomfort I've experienced in my hips.  Also, the big project on my list to add bracing under the v-berth was no longer necessary--so, I gladly crossed this project off my "to do" list.  

We picked up another can of PB Blaster today and soaked the stanchion base by spraying the PB Blaster into the lower lifeline hole and around the exterior where the stanchion sits in the stanchion base.  Allowing this to sit overnight should help us get the stanchion off tomorrow. 

At the end of the day the sky was overcast
and a rain storm came through the
marina in Baltimore.

Please wear a face mask and practice social distancing--it is the only way we can through this pandemic!


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