123rd Meridian

Yesterday we crossed the 123rd meridian and things didn't get much better. But not much more expensive either so I figure we're ahead, all things considered. (Knocking wood on an all-fiberglass boat is a challenge. We are only halfway through our cruise.)

We discovered that the source of our bilge pump problem had to do with a stuck float valve. As in all such discoveries the telling of the tale can begin with the line, "Ask me how I know this."

When we turned off the bilge pump we incapacitated the shower sump. Every time we showered or did dishes, the waste water would flow to the shower sump until it became full - which didn't take long - and then it overflowed into another bilge compartment.

Over the last two days, we noticed the sinks were draining slow so we took a look below and found quite a mess. We turned the pump back on and used a hand pump to pump the water from the bilge to the sump as the pump happily pumped the sump overboard.

All this before we had our first of coffee so you can imagine how thrilled we were.

This exercise seemed to have corrected both problems - the sump and the bilge were drained and the float switch seems to be working so we didn't have to disconnect the pump again.

I would count this as a win except we blew an in-line fuse on the stereo yesterday. We've seen the back of the stereo before but it wasn't easy. All we have to do is pop off a speaker cover, unscrew four screws, use a dental mirror to see the back of the thing, decipher the spider web of wires back there only to discover the fuse is really under the dinette which only requires a wrench and a really small person who fits under the seats. Shouldn't take more than a six pack to figure out but then we have to find a Kenwood fuse in a marine town. Only a few gnashed teeth and rent garments should fix the problem.

It's better than commie pinko liberal brown bats, though.