Spring projects

The optimist in me says we are done with snow and ice for the season. That tidbit of information means Cupcake's crew won’t see winter again until December 2019. I can’t describe how happy that fact makes me feel. Not a fan of the cold. Or the ice. Or the snow. Or the not-sailing.

Yesterday Ellen and I got onboard and started moving on some projects that need to happen before the end of April when Cupcake gets hauled to the boatyard for the water maker installation.

We decided to go with a composting head, so after not nearly enough research we bought an Airhead at the Maine Boatbuilders Show last weekend. Yesterday we pulled all the nasty nasty old plumbing off the boat in preparation. I can’t wait to be free from stink and clogs and leaks. Not to mention becoming a law-abiding, non-discharge kind of citizen. The photo of the removed hoses and valves does not do justice to the unpleasantness of the task. Every hose was disgusting to see, to touch, and to smell. Every hose clamp was either covered with brown rust or dried poop or both. Our anti-siphon valve had been allowing a fine mist of aerosolized fecal matter to spray all over the bulkhead in one of our lockers for about a season. Lovely.

The other exciting springtime step is that we wound and set the ship’s clock. It runs for a week at a time, so we committed to getting onboard at least weekly to get stuff done and to wind the clock this spring. If everything goes according to plan (and really, what doesn’t go according to plan on a boat) the clock will stay running until the fall of 2019 when the boat is hauled at the end of our adventure. That’s pretty exciting stuff. (The brown on this bulkhead is just teak. Don't panic.)