There's a famous old boatyard saying: "I started the day with 8 jobs to do. I finished 5 of them. Yay! Now I only have 12 left!"
This steady accretion of jobs happens for lots of reasons, most of them grim. But sometimes just by happenstance. In today's case, a job got added simply because the faucet I installed yesterday happened to come with a soap dispenser. Now, this is something I would never buy for a boat, but as I was about to toss it into the trash with the faucet box, I thought, "Well, why not?"
Of course I didn't have the right size hole saw (it doesn't seem to matter how many I collect. There's always one I don't have), so I had to make a quick run to the hardware store, but otherwise it was a nice simple install, and I think it will be a handy addition to the galley. We can dispense with the pump bottle held in place by the piece of bungie cord that we inherited from John & Gill. Nice.
On the grim side of the ledger, I discovered that one of the sink drains was leaking. Turned out to be a (very) old hose clamp that just wasn't doing its job right. The clamp was completely corroded so I couldn't even loosen it to get it off. Luckily there was enough room on the hose to fit another one. Second extra job done.
You might think it's odd that I'm spending so much time on the water system, but if you think about it, there are only a few things that really need to work to get across an ocean: keep the water out, keep the rig up and sail driving, stay on the boat, and make sure you don't run out of water. Food too, but mainly water.
Continuing on this fascinating topic, it was nearly time to commission the water system after the winter lay up. This means flushing the anti-freeze out of our four water tanks. Luckily, I was able rope Helena into doing this job: put 5 liters of water into each tank, pump it out, repeat until the water runs clear.
When that was done, I had to replace our two under-sink water filters for the season. Having completely re-built this filter system a couple of years ago, it's a relatively easy job. I use a 20 micron coarse filter, followed by a 5 micron carbon filter for taste. We also filter the water on the way into the tank, so the hundred gallons of water we carry on Petronella tastes great right out of the faucet.
The main trick I have to share about our water filters is to coat the threads with a bit of silicon paste. And to change the filters every 3 months. Also, only hand-tighten the filter cases. The biggest problem I've had with this system is having the filter cases freeze shut. I dislike working with my head under the sink, so I try to keep the filters easy and fast to replace.
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