Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, yesterday was the day for toilet maintenance. It has to happen.
We have new (or had, 6 months ago) electric loos, the master toilet getting the majority of the workload. This is because it is off the saloon, and easily reached. The forw'd loo is up three steps and down 6, into the cold nether regions of the boat. However...it is the one that gives us the least trouble.
There is a good reason for that. It is positioned directly above the waste tank and it is a short drop (literally) into the tank. The master loo has a few twists and turns to take and it is below the seawater level outside of the hull, so it has positive pressure into the raw water pump. Waz has installed a flow regulator to reduce the amount of water coming into the bowl, thereby saving room in the tank, which is an 80 gallon one. It has a ventilated loop on the inlet which has a solenoid valve on it so that when it isn't pumping, the ventilated loop is open to the atmosphere. This is so that if there is any air leakage on the raw water side, the pump side of the ventilated loop ends up in the toilet bowl, adding more water than is needed, to the mix.
Who woulda thunk loos would be so complicated?
He is up forw'd right now finishing the work he started yesterday.
I wont take any photos of what he is doing...for obvious reasons!!
It has been warm again at night, so I took the down duvet off the bed 'again' and we are back to the cotton quilt without blankets over the top. We are expecting a cold wave this afternoon, but right now it is over 80F outside...an absolutely gorgeous day:)
It started out foggy, however. We couldn't see the end of the canal.
You can see how still the water was. It took a long time to burn off, and the fog was still there after 10.am.
When I went out in my PJs to take the photos of the fog, there was a Cormorant fishing near the boat. He had a large fish in his beak, which he kept losing when it wiggled too much. In that case, he would go diving again and up he would come with the fish in beak.
Finally!!!
Warren has seen them catch Flounder and when they swallow the fish, their necks are very distorted until the fish goes all the way down. We aren't sure how they manage to swallow these larger fish!
It is so much fun watching the bird life in and around the boat. Yesterday there was a large flock of Crows cawing and flying around, not settling. When the flock disappeared, one of them was left sitting at the top of the sailboat mast, opposite us. It sat there for the longest time cawing and making quite a ruckus. None of the other crows answered, so he eventually flew away.
We sat up on the fly deck and ate our lunch yesterday and today. It is lovely and warm up there, even with the windows open. We feel the rocking of the boat the most when up top, of course, and that gentle rocking tends to have a soporific effect...we both feel like dozing off!
Lunch is something to look forward to....
We have finished the spiral cut honey baked ham from Len's birthday party, and nectarines are now in the grocery store, so we are making the most of them. We finished the carrot cake from the birthday, last night, and now we will have to just eat fruit for dessert. Not that we mind!
We went out this morning to look for a Serger Sewing machine. I have a Bernette 25 yr old Serger packed away in NZ, but it wont help me here. Waz is now looking on E-bay to see if we can find one for under $200. Stand by on that front!
We also went by a jewelry store to see how to clean my gold earrings and fob watch chain necklace. The gold had tarnished while we were in Houston and I haven't managed to get it properly clean since.
We were told to soak the gold in 2/1 water/Simple green cleaning liquid. That is all they ever do! So simple!!! I am about to try that and will see if it actually does work.
I am about to attack the book of our travels, again. It is a bit challenging putting it all together, especially when I have so many photographs to include. Weeding them out is the hard part, if I don't want to end up with a 300 page book.
We are going to Sarasota tomorrow to catch up with Robyn and Dave who are parked at Long Boat Key. We will spend the day with them, have some lunch down at the waterfront and come home before it gets too dark.
Keep your fingers crossed that the weather stays warm!
Ciao for now
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