Meanwhile, back on the boat

While we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation, there has been no rest for the weary- or wicked. Or something. The day after we returned from the UK it was back to business.

Mark started to sort out the wiring from the mast. Either the builder or a previous owner thought it would be a good idea to run all the wires from the mast under the sole of the boat. Good in theory but perhaps lacking a bit in execution. What do you do with a drunken sailor? Let him route wiring apparently. Instead of running the wiring through conduit neatly in as direct a manner as possible, the unnamed person responsible for wiring just put them any old place. This meant our bilge and under sole area looked like this:

Not only did this mean tracking down any problems would take three times as long as it should but it meant that we could not use the area for storage and with 4 peeps aboard we need every inch of storage we can squeak out. The chaos and disorder also caused Capt. Perfecto's left eye to twtich funny.

Mark has been painstakingly repairing crappy splicing (if you find your wires are too short, just take a stab at splicing with an exacto knife and duct tape. Still too short? Do it again! Measuring cable is for girlie men!) and routing the wiring neatly under the sole. Thanks to a combo of expandable braid and cable conduit it now looks like this:

All the cabling now is decently spliced, labeled and running through conduit which is neatly tucked away. Now we have a place for storage (we are designing a sliding tray system to hold canned goods) once we move on to the plumbing which has been routed in a similar haphazard manner. Oh and now that I can actually SEE the bilges I think I will be painting them in the very near future. Fantastic! Another project. Whee.

And now that the wiring is nearly done and the plans for the plumbing refit are being finalized we are getting to the fun part. I'm figuring out exactly what I want to do with the galley while Mark and Kitty continue to research our options for electronics. ELECTRONICS! Once we start installing them it means we are really on the down hill side and getting to the bottom of the refit list and I for one will be really, really glad to take that list with every little box ticked and set it on FIYAH! I may or may not dance nekkid around the burning refit list. If I do, I sure as heck won't be posting photos of that on the blog. Somethings are better left to the imagination.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

 In 2 short weeks Texas went from its winter state of dead and brown to full on, sprouting, blooming springtime madness. Weeds have been reproducing with wild abandon in the garden, the grass spouted well past ankle height to the dismay of our HOA and the roses have utterly taken over. I spent 3 days just trying to tidy up the grass, weed the beds, trim the crepe myrtles that have arisen from their slumber with a jolt and cut back the roses which have formed a hedge worthy of Maleficient. I did have some pretty cute helpers, although Kitty prefers to pluck roses and throw the petals like confetti at a parade more than anything else. Maura is an ace weeder though- with a bit of prodding that is. Our reward at the end of the gardening marathons were beautiful, big as saucer blooms through out the house. Nice.