Project Progess Report

 One of the first projects was to put our new settee, upolstery by Liz, in place.  Back home, Steve had built the cabinet to enclose our wonderful frig, so he installed that.  Big improvements for our interior. 

 Steve designed our new aluminum fuel tanks over the summer and we had them fabricated in a small shop about 2 hours away.  Once we got almost everything else out of the van, we went to pick them up.  There are four tanks, 54 gallons each, to replace the two old tanks. 





 First step is to cut out the old tanks.  A pump built into the old fuel system transferred the remaining fuel from the starboard tank into the port tank, but the "bottom of the barrel" had to be pumped out by hand through the deck fill.  Nigel took it off our hands and filtered it to use in his boat. 

Steve was admittedly a little nervous about sawing through the tanks, even though he had solid information that any remaining diesel would not ignite. but the time came, so he started cutting.  Crazy job, sawed the tank into four pieces and one by one, they came out the front floor hatch.  It was a dirty, messy, sweaty job in a small space.  Here's one of the tank sections and you can see the rust that necessitated replacing them. 



He prepped the surfaces where the first set of tanks would sit.  They won't fit through our doors, but came in through our big side windows, just like the frig did last fall....

 ... and with only inches to spare, down into the engine room.  The tanks were designed by Steve to fit precisely into this hatch.  To go into the much bigger main hatches, he would've had to move the engine.  This route, only had to move the generator. 

 Wriggling it into place, even I got to help.  Fittings had to be manuvered under bundles of wires and the tank had to be braced up and then dropped exactly onto the bunks and cribbing that had been coated with 3M 5200.  Here she is, tank number ONE, proudly in place. 

As you can see, it is a pretty roomy engine room, especially compared to the one Steve used to work in.  The second starboard tank is now also in place and some of what seems to be about a million fittings have been placed.  Today Steve pumped the fuel back over and into the new tank, which already has a working fuel gauge !!!  He's ready to start cutting on the port tank out. 

I have started my most challenging varnish job to date.  Last season I stripped, sanded, and varnished the column on the right of the picture below.  Like alot of the copious interior teak, this piece was so dirty that the grain of the wood could not even be seen.  I have tackled the railing and tiny spindles that ring this small peninsula that separates our galley from our salon.  There are 30 spindles, and it is putzy, putzy, so I do a bit each day. 

We do play a little bit too, and will cover that in next post.