Today was a good day. We still have not finished the fuel gauge, but we did make progress, and we did another project, so we feel good.
I tried the cool new tools I bought from Home Depot last night with no luck, those screws were still stuck fast and not moving. So, Bean and I decided we would ask Bill for a little help next time we saw him, and until then, we would shift gears and do something else.
While I was at Home Depot last night, I also picked up some supplies to fix the companionway ladder. One of the dowels had fallen out of the bottom and needed to be replaced, and the other was loose. The missing one also had a big chunk of wood missing that it was supposed to attach to. So I had a thin piece of popular that we measured and Bean cut to size with the hacksaw. We put this on the inside of the step as a new backstop for the missing chunk of wood. Then we used super glue to place both dowels in the correct position (and did a test fit to verify before it was too set!), and then filled in the space between the dowel and the new backstop with a wood epoxy. As we were letting that set, we ran into Bill.
Bill came by the boat with some spray to loosen them, but after analyzing the situation, determined that what we really needed was a really big screwdriver. So, off he went back to his boat to retrieve a VERY large flat head screwdriver with a shaft that allows it to be used with a wrench. Using that he was able to free two more of the screws, and we got one of them out. At that point, however, we realized the tank was still way overfilled, as the diesel started coming out of the screw hole on top of the tank! So we quickly put the screw back in, covered it with some absorbent cloths, and off to the store I went. We still have two more screws to free, but those are harder to reach due to the misaligned board on top, so I will try to tackle those with a wrench from under the board next time.
I picked up one more diesel can, and a siphon pump to help us empty it. I hooked up the hose, got Bean in place near the valve, and off we went. Given the last time (when Michael ended up covered in diesel), I expected it to be a bit more exciting, but thankfully it was not! We took a little over 4 gallons out of the tank, verified it was no longer leaking, stuck a couple pads under the boards to pick up any stray fuel on top, and called it a night.
I finally got my shower, and Bean is taking hers now - it feels so good to be clean after all that!
Tomorrow we are playing it by ear dependent on weather - there may be some storms coming in, in which case I don't really want to be playing in the lazarette trying to finish this up - so we may shift gears and do some rust repair. If the weather plays nice though, hopefully we can wrap this up tomorrow!
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