3/15/10 - Working on the boat in St Pete

Hard to believe that we have only been gone for two weeks. It seems much longer (that sounds bad doesn't it?). We are well entrenched in working on the boat at Salt Creek Marina. Big Jim who runs the place is a fine fellow and very cooperative although not much has happened yet from them. Linda, Bill and I have been falling into a routine of shopping for supplies first thing in the morning and then spending the rest of the day until around 7:00 at the boat. Then it's home to the Hampton Inn and showers, dinner and bed. So far, here is a partial list of what we have done.

1. General cleaning (needs much more)
2. Removing the 10 zincs
3. Removing all of the hoses on both engines and the generator (there are many and they are TOUGH to get off).
4. Cleaning the raw water strainers including trying to remove all of the barnacles that lived inside (they smell great as they die!). Might have to replace the worst one.
5. Removing both transmission coolers (need replacement)
6. Removing the heat exchanger on the generator (corroded and needs servicing)
7. Doing some bright work (varnishing - Linda of course).
8. Rough cleaning the rust off the top of the fuel tanks in prep for treating and painting. See the photo
9. Trouble shooting/repairing the four bilge pumps.
10. Trying to trace many of the electrical circuits.
11. Installing new filters in the water system.

Note that the items that say "removing" still need to be replaced. There are enough active jobs that little bags of parts are stashed all over the place and can get misplaced.

The photo is Linda as she was preparing to start work this morning on the fuel tanks. She wouldn't give me permission to take her picture at the end of the day - use your imagination.

Although there are lots of things that need doing (and it's hard for geezers to work hard), in general the boat is pretty easy to work on. One exception to this is the electrical and electronics wiring. There are THOUSANDS of wires running all over the place and none are really marked. Quite a challenge. Oh well.

I just asked Linda what she would like to express to you and she said "Tell em it's really hard". It's one thing to know it will be hard but a whole 'nother thing to experience it.

Although we haven't done any tourist stuff, we really like St Pete. The people are friendly, the weather is nice this time of year and prices are pretty cheap.

Hope everything is well with ya'll (hey, we're in Florida).

I still plan on doing a post on the first and the fifteenth of each month plus occasionally in-between.

Bye from Tod, Linda and Bill.