A day in the life

A post from Susan from several days ago.

So several people have asked me what it is that we “do” all day long and I thought I’d try to explain (a little).  Typical answers like, “Whatever the Hell we feel like doing” and “Not much” seem to cover a lot of it, but there are a few other things. 

This morning, for example, we did NOT get up early.  I have no idea what time it actually was since I quit wearing a watch when I quit work. When we got up we were treated to the lovely odor of sewage. 

We had been worried that the vent hose on the forward holding tank might be blocked and a little investigation confirmed that fear.  Need I tell you how disgusting this was?  Poor Brian pulled the vent hose from the top of the holding tank (which, incidentally, was full and spilled you-know-what all into the bilge- but more on that later) and cleaned it out as best he could from that end.  That didn’t fix it, so we attacked the other end (at the hull).  Now all that sounds pretty straightforward, right?  NOT!!  It’s a boat so nothing is easy.  In order to get to the holding tank, you have to move a ton of stuff, unscrew the floorboards and then move more junk- all of this in a 2 foot square hole in the floor.  It’s quite a trick when you’re 6’2”.  And to get to the hull end of the tube?  Even worse. You have to unload and remove an entire bookcase from the forward bulkhead and squeeze behind it.  Houdini would be proud. Fortunately, we did find a problem- the vent hose was kinked so therefore not venting.  We repaired that and removed a huge hunk of- well,uh- you know. That still didn’t fix it.  We also had a leaking (and stinking!) macerator pump.  That’s the pump who’s job it is to pump the poop out.  It was also leaking into the bilge (we’re getting to that, I promise) so we were off to West Marine to buy a new one which we replaced without too much problem. There was a whole bunch of other junk that had to get done in there, but nothing quite as exciting as cleaning the bilge since it was full of ka-ka.  What a joy.  We pumped it nearly dry then scrubbed the bottom and sides as best we could and then rinsed it several times with fresh water.  Have I mentioned how bad all this smelled?  I thought so.  By now, it was time for dinner and we decided that eating out sounded much more appealing than on the boat.  I must admit it smelled MUCH better when we got back, but after showers we were knackered and passed out. 

 

So, you ask, are we bored?  Are you kidding?  I would love to be bored.  Actually we have had some peaceful, relaxing, lazy days and are having a blast, but there isn’t a day that goes by that there isn’t some big or small boat project that needs our attention.  We’re learning a LOT and loving every minute of it.

Now Brian adding his two cents worth... The day Susan described is toward the yucky end of the scale and fortunately we don't have too many of those. That being said, I do believe that if you live on a boat you will have more maintenance to do than on a house and car combined. 

We're still in St Petersburg and really enjoying it. The municipal marina is right on the waterfront in downtown. There are more bars, restaurants and shops than you can count within walking distance. Thursday night our friends Ted and Claire went with us to a beach bar on St Pete Beach to watch the sunset. Unfortunately it was cloudy so we didn't get a great sunset but it was still nice. Saturday night the four of us walked around town, stopping at a few places for a drink and some live music and finally ended up at a Mexican restaurant that also had live music before heading back to the boat. Life really is good!

What's next? Well... There isn't a lot farther South we can go without putting ourselves in  an unprotected spot as it pertains to hurricanes, not unless we make a mad dash down to the keys and then around to the east coast of Florida. So we'll stay here for a bit longer, at least until the weekend, and then make our way south a bit. Marco Island is about as far south as we want to be before we're well into October. 

Stay tuned and we'll let you know what we're doing as soon as we know.

Take care.

Brian