Gread advice from followers and an apology.....

Blogs are a curious exercise in self indulgence. Glancing at the "Feedjit" map on the right hand every day gives one the feeling that I have followers all over the world. Closer analysis, however, indicates that many of these hits are for my posts on "sea cocks". I hereby apologize to the gay community, and possibly some single women, for confusing their search for love on the high seas. It was not intentional.

For people like Jerr Dunlap (check out his web site), a boat builder on the west coast, one question, why are you not on the East Coast? I will take your advice on painting the bilge. How do you feel about Interlux 2000E, which I have used before with some success.

Ref the bilge pumps. You are aboslutely correct. The lower pump is only for nuisance water. I will have a Rule 3,700 GPH above it. See my post on bilge pumps here, and again thanks for the input.

The bilge works.....

well it was hardly a high tech project;

Bilge full


Bilge empty....almost


There is a small lip where the two epoxy/sand pours joined, but it serves to trap water on the sump side, so I just pretend that it was part of the plan.

BTW the sand/epoxy mix is never coming out. I tried to grind a little to level off the sump and lets just say it took a while.

This is what I plan to install as a sump pump;



The Whale Supersub smart 650.

Bottom of keel in...

Seems like years ago I decided on an mix of epoxy and sand to raise the bottom of the keel to support the fuel tanks and to provide a sump. Well, its done.




My excuse was that I had to wait for a day that wasn't so hot that I would pass out and be found face down in the epoxy, as in;



On a rainy day where the bilge fills up with water. As it was, I just finished before the rain started. The concrete block will, hopefully, be removed and provide the sump to take a small bilge pump.

Temperature drop in Miami.......

57 deg F tonight. (that's 15 deg C in old money). Panicky trip to the basement storage to recover "blankie".

Seriously though, this is why you live in Florida......WINTER.

Still too hot to work.......

but not too hot to pull things apart.

The lockers in the aft heads were not too bad. Just a little de-lamination due to chain-plate leaks etc. (big surprise, not). However, the bottom right hand corner contained an above water bilge drain, which could only be serviced by leprechauns with very long arms. I find hiring these to be very very expensive and will have no fitting on-board that cannot be serviced by an overweight, extremely lazy, aging cruiser.

I also have plans for the sink area which may or may not materialize.

So out came the sink, the bulkhead between the head and the Engine room and the front face of the lockers.

As they say, so far so good. Now if I can just put it all back together.

Should I install a diving board?

Probably not, the water in the bilge looks a bit shallow. Still its nice to have access like this to a "real" engine room.

BTW you are looking down through the cockpit sole.

I havn't been kidnapped....

I spent the last week onboard my friends Patrick and Lisa's Whitby 42 "Gaia" sailing on the Chesapeake and visiting the Whitby/Brewer rendezvous. Great sailing, great boats (10), great people and great program. What more needs to be said.