Estimates @ Delta Marine

Cruised down the Duwamish on Sunday evening to drop the boat off to get some repair/upgrade estimates from Delta Marine. Had a pleasant dinghy ride back to EBM to catch a fantastic sunset.

Latitude in the background.

Shower Drain Repair

Last year I had a few issues with my shower.

• Initially, we believed the shower drain and pump worked fine. Maybe it did.
• I had a transom zinc installed.
• I grounded the transom zinc to a few places.
• Next time I tried the shower drain pump, it didn't work. Running slow, kept tripping the breaker.
• I noodled on it, and assumed (correctly) that one of my transom zinc groundings was to an inappropriate location, causing the pump issue. Relocating the ground wire solved the problem.
• However, in the course of this, I bumped the pump and broke off both of the 40-year-old brittle inlet fittings.
• So after a trip to the marine store for new fittings, I proceeded to install them. Success!
• Oh, but next time we used the shower, water was cascading out of the drain into the bilge. No!! Turns out in the process of replacing the pump fittings, I pulled too hard (not very hard at all) on the drain hose and it pulled loose the severely corroded and split shower drain hose collar.
• No problem, can just replace the drain. But no, there is absolutely positively no access to the underside of the drain pan to accomplish this seemingly straightforward task.
• Fast forward a year, while I procrastinated and noodled on the problem.

After much deliberation and research, I settled on the following:

• Purchased a Valterra drain elbow, used in RVs. This was necessary because there was only about 4" of clearance from the shower drain hole to the hull.
• Tore out the old drain, from the top. What a pain.
• Cleaned everything up.
• Ran a new hose from the pump to the pan.
• Installed the Valterra fitting on a standard flush mount sink drain.
• UV4000'd four teak backing blocks to the underside of the pan.
• Drilled some holes in the pan and the drain (remember, I have to install from the top).
• Connected the hose to the drain fitting.
• Glooped on UV4000 and screwed down moderately tight.
• Waited overnight, and screwed down tight (to the teak blocks remember).
• Leak test, and it worked!!

So, I now have a working shower again. Finally. :-)

New Back Deck

Our back deck was severely pitted and weathered after years of use and abuse. The PO had glued down outdoor carpeting, which we had removed as part of the purchase agreement. To prep the deck, we first repaired all of the perimeter gelcoat dings and epoxied a few deck delaminations. Finally, we had Puget Sound Teak out to measure and make a mylar template, and viola! A new beautiful back deck, replete with glow-in-the-dark piping. What an amazing improvement!

Anchor, baby!

Fisheries had a great sale going on, so we finally upgraded our fortress-style anchor with a new 20kg Rocna Vulcan. No pulpit modifications necessary, and can't wait to try it out!

Vessel Safety Check Complete

Successfully passed our USCG Aux Vessel Safety Check today! Needed to make a few adjustments first:

• Zip-tied the thru-hull head discharge hoses closed so it's impossible to accidentally discharge nastiness.
• Put a copy of our insurance policy on board.
• Affixed the boat registration sticker and lettering to the forward hull.

New Back Deck!

New plastic glow in the dark teak deck! Gorgeous!