Friday, March 16, 2012

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.






10 comments:

  1. Those two beautiful girls! And nice job on the wire tidy up! That is no small task, I know!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Does Mark have to wear a tight-fitting hat to keep his head from exploding when he sees wiring messes like that?

    -Steve

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not anymore Steve. His head has exploded so many times it is no longer possible to explode.Now his left eye starts twitching and he becomes incapable of saying anything other than "dirty, filthy, thieving bastards"....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pretty roses!!! I'm soooooooooo glad to see winter go! I know we didn't have much of one, but all that pulling out the winter coat, putting it away (it doesn't fit me anymore anyway), never knowing if you're going to bake or need a sweater...I prefer just to bake.

    And wait...I'm confused. Who's against measuring? Somebody named Capt. Perfecto couldn't be against measuring...right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Capt. Perfecto is pro measuring- 3 or 4 times just to be sure. The builders of the boat? Not so much.

      Delete
  5. Now that makes sense! That's what I was thinking it had to be...but then when I saw that last bit about the cable being "decently spliced"...I got confused. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cid....the bottom photo.....is that Maura?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I hope you will at least show pictures of the List on FIYAH. I look forward to the day we start buying electronics! I am so excited for you.

    Funny, we were also in the bilge removing wires. lol.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Why is it that 'pre owned' boats always come with more than their share of wiring woes? My husband's head explodes, too, when he sees a mess like that. He just shakes his head in that way that he has when he's basically speechless. Can't believe you guys have roses! We're feeling the pain of an extended winter season up here while everywhere else seems warmer than usual. Yuck. This morning it was rain mixed with snow. I haven't even trimmed my roses back yet.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We feel your pain. Or at least, Jamie does. He had to rewire Totem and can go on at length about the mess we replaced. In other news... those roses are STUNNING. Wow!! The HOA can stick em... yeah. Moving on...

    ReplyDelete