Today was a successful day. We started in the morning at the apartment with Michael. He was a sweetheart and made us breakfast before sending us on our way :-)
Once we got back to the boat, I decided to tackle some electrical - namely the fans - as the weather is heating up and we are going to want them. The v-berth was a bit of a pain in the butt for a couple reasons. One - fitting the wires into the ceiling - I had to remove a ton of styrofoam with a screwdriver in order to get them to fit with the extra connectors on them. Once that was done, we had a hard time getting it to connect for some reason - I think the wires were pinched... once we tried to turn it on, it didn't work - so we had to take it apart again and troubleshoot. I verified we had power to the wires, hotwired the fan and tested that it worked, and then reconnected everything - being careful to NOT pinch wires this time, and wall-a, we have a working fan :-)
Building on that success, I decided to install the one in the salon too. This one went pretty smooth, though I admit I tested the fan at several steps to make sure it worked ;-)
I also did some practice with controlled drilling. I usually just drill all the way through things (I'm still learning, cut me some slack), so today I practiced just pushing through about 1/2" (long enough for the screws) with a tiny bit. I'll do that again when I install the nav light so I don't have to take apart the whole ceiling to see what I'm doing!
While I was doing all of that, Bean started working on the cockpit floor. It had a wooden 'overlay' thing, but you could see a TON of dirt and gunk underneath - I'm not sure they had been taken up in the last year to clean under them....
She took off two of them, and discovered the bottom side had started rotting and was covered in mildew, so we will just be removing them and then applying some non-skid to the cockpit floor.
She then scrubbed her little heart out to get all the dirt removed and make it sparkle. She sanded off the rusty spots (presumably where the nails in the wood touched the metal since it didn't go all the way through) and the area is now ready for primer.
Tomorrow, I plan to clean out the fuel connectors so they are ready for Michael to do his thing on Saturday (did I mention he is helping us out on weekends now?), and then install the light over the nav station. Bean is going to get the rest of the cockpit ready for primer.
Tonight, we will have a drink to celebrate, and we have been invited for a 'movie night' on a friend's boat. Should be a great time, and then back to work tomorrow!
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