Thankfully Carol did most of the work for the dinner, so I was able to sneak off into the shop for a couple of hours to dismantle the Wilcox Crittenden Skipper head in preparation for servicing it. Latex gloves are definitely de rigueur for this sort of operation. Other than the predictable "Yuck!" factor, it all went pretty smoothly, with the exception of pulling the piston out of the base casting. That required considerable leverage, which I ultimately supplied with a large crowbar, some scrap blocks of wood as a fulcrum, and a piece of broom handle which fit neatly through the pump shaft hole in the piston lever.
On Sunday, Carol and I did manage to make a brief run to check on the boat to see how it had weathered the rain and wind predicted to gust over 60 mph. Everything was fine and it appeared that my most recent efforts to deal with the cabin and engine room leaks were successful. I also tried connecting the new tee assembly into the sink and shower sump discharge hoses, but was unable to get the sink hose over the barbs despite heating the hose with a hair dryer and lubricating the barb. Next I'll try 1 inch barbs instead of the 1 1/4 inch. Nothing is simple.
Now, i'm just a monkey...and I'm from out of town, but it appears to me that Captain George was also just a dinner guest that evening and didn't do much else. See, seems Carol did all the work making dinner for Jim and Cathy. In fact, I'll bet she also filled their glasses, and nodded at their conversations even though she wasn't that awake form traveling....I'll be she made them laff with haha jokes, and told entertaining stories, and sang silly songs, and cleaned up afterwords and played bored games like Seven Monkeys of the Apocalypse or My Witch Can Beat Up Your Witch. In fact, I'll bet my bananas this is only the tip of the ice berg of all the activities and work that went on to put on a spiffy interesting evening. And I'll bet even more bananas she did it all!
ReplyDeleteAnd where was Captain G while all this was going on? Where was he hiding but also pretending he was involved? Oh, he was in the basement playing with his Johnny - putting on his rubber gloves and scrubbing the bowl...singing old TV show songs like CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU? and ITS ABOUT TIME and WAGON TRAIN and RAT PATROL and GREEN ACRES. Thats what I bet!
rain rain rain more rain...in a virtual boat traveling the sea
I'm saltymonkey thats me!
ps: ooOOh nice sunflowers by the way. i love sunflowers more than raisins and gravel and walnut shells
ReplyDeleteGeez, SM, you didn't have to rat me out!! Yes, even the sunflowers were Carol's doing. I guess that's why she's the admiral and I'm just the lowly captain relegated to dealing with toilets.
ReplyDeleteWell in the Captains defense, he did a little house cleaning and made a perfect pot of coffee. Oh, and he's the sommelier. I just keep thinking that down the road I will appreciate a safe and sturdy Circadian!
ReplyDeleteIndeed! well!!!
ReplyDelete( Hmm... )
But why then all the toitee piktures? Why I wonder so many strange piktures instead of more sunflowers and happy doggies?? Why???
I bet he was giggling with glee in his boaty world when loosening that pump shaft packing cap.