A day of getting 'things' done.

Now, I hope you don't expect me to have gotten down in the 'tank' department with the camera, because you are going to be bitterly disappointed, I fear. I couldn't get anywhere near the area for the smell.
Dealing with nasty smells is just part of the closed environment called a BOAT. Although we open wide all the windows, have fans blowing in most of the cabins and other places, the smells seem to linger in corners and places where the air doesn't circulate so freely.

I will lie down with my head on the pillow...and then sniff, sniff...some odor will assault, or even creep up on me, and Im out of bed in a flash to waves something frantically around so that the odor disperses in THAT corner...or, I just put up with it, depending on how tired I am. Equal measure on both!

I told you that we had purchased a 'bubbler' from the pet store. These are the aerators that you put in fish tanks to keep the oxygen in the water. That is exactly what our bubbler is doing to our waste tank! However, the boat was rather odiferous yesterday. We hoped folks down the canal couldn't smell the 'Rotorua' smell (for all you non-kiwis, that is a small city in NZ that has a permanent Sulphur smell...geothermal activity!).

I got up at 4.19am (yes, I looked at the clock!) because of the awful sloshing sounds in the tank under our bed. Our bed is on top of the clean water tank!! someone with a sense of humor designed THAT one! NOT!!!

My mind raced over the previous evening's activities and I ascertained that we had not untied the rope at the stern, that we tie off so that we can get back onto the boat easily.
It appeared that we also hadn't turned off the light on the cockpit deck! huh? and the curtain on the starb'd side was unhooked at the stern...huh?

It was COLD outside. Warren told me this morning that is was supposed to be in the 40's F!

We had been for a walk prior to getting dinner, last night, and apparently didn't do any of the things I just told you about. Unhooking, pinning the curtain or turning out the light.

The light at sunset was interesting. It was getting increasingly colder, and I could see the ice-crystals in the cloud. I attempted to photograph the clouds.

...and reflected glory!

 

As I entitled this post, it was a day of getting things done.

 

It did take us a while to GET going though. We procrastinated for a morning, and then after lunch decided that industry was better than sloth, and did in fact get off our butts and did something. First, though, we had to make a run to Ace Hardware. Waz went in while I waited in the car with the radio on. We then went to JoAnn's in the nearby shopping complex and bought some fabric for a curtain and some cushions for upstairs on the fly deck. Many is the time I have wanted something at my back and was too lazy to come downstairs for a cushion...and it gets wet upstairs, so the cushions have to be of waterproof fabric, in case they get left out, and it rains. You get the picture!!

 

 

 

 

The Curtain: Because of the vast amount of 'glass' on the fly deck, there is no shade up there. If you want to sit up there on a sunny day, you really cant for very long, because the sun hits you from every angle. It also gets incredible hot up there in summer. The idea behind a 'curtain' is that you can hang this thing from any of the Velcro that us already on the 'window surrounds at the top (for the fly screens), and it will give shade...

See! This works well...and it is just on 10am. I normally sit with my back to this side, and I end up having to move. Now I feel I can sit there without being fried:)

 

Who knows, I may yet make more for some night time privacy. Our neighbors tell us that the only time they see that we are on the boat, is when we are upstairs on the Fly Deck! We often eat our dinner up there, when the weather is fine and warm.

 

Warren, apart from installing the Bubbler in the waste tank, also put a flow restrictor on our bathroom toilet. This limits the amount of water that goes through each time you flush. We don't have Vacuflush loos (like the airline toilets), but electric ones, instead, on the boat, and the forward loo works just fine without a flow restrictor, so why doesn't our master loo?? you tell us, and we will all know!

 

Anyhoo...Mission accomplished, and the pump-out fella arrived at 8am this morning with the 50ft hose, after I called the boss man yesterday and told him not to turn up without it, this time. At least they listen!:)

 

So, no foul odors this morning..YAYAYYAYAYAY!!! and the little bubbler will hopefully do it's job with a tank that will fill up during the week.

 

I finished the second cushion cover around 4.30, when it was getting pretty cool up on the fly-deck, where I had set up the sewing machine, per normal. It is a major effort to take all the sewing bits and pieces up and down the three flights of stairs, from the master bedroom, to the fly deck and return.

I have one more cover to make, but it wont be today.

 

Today we are going to a place just north of Venice. FL, which isn't that far away. Perhaps 45 mins, at the most. We have been looking for charts for our Canadian travels, and have found someone who us selling theirs. We have a list of the ones we want, and will take a look at the others he has, as well.

 

My friend Maggie, from Maui, comes originally from Ottowa. She says she spent much of her youth sailing in and around the Thousand Islands area of the St Lawrence Seaway, and highly recommends that and the Georgian Bay areas as THE places to cruise during the very limited (8 weeks?) summer season. We have been debating where we will go, this year, and with her recommendations we might just do the St Lawrence Seaway route and then the Trent Severn Canal from Trenton to Port Severn.

We will need to stop in Kingston on the way, beacause that is where one of my rellies is buried. Part of the family went from England to Kingston, Canada, and there are two family graves there apparently. I will find out more as we go!

 

Waz has been on a continuing quest to find window latches, as the ones we have are now starting to break. He is an exhaustive searcher of the interweb, and has yet to be successful in this quest. However, he has found some 'better' solutions to the problem. He just came into the cabin to show me what he has fashioned to take their place. Very Clever. I will post a photo when they are complete!

 

I think he is waiting for me to finish this post, so I had better get myself together and get out the door.

 

Ciao for now, and I will report back on our Chart progress later.