These last few months we have been working diligently on our list of "Things To Get Done Before Leaving." The list is nicely organized into categories such as long term, short term, high importance, medium importance and so on. Some items just require buying (ie liferaft) and others require project design and planning.

Head to Work Bench/Tool Storage Conversion
The most time consuming project has been the re-design of the head. I first remember Jacob bringing up the idea of replacing the counter space and cabinets in the head when we were looking at the Cal 34. At the time I thought it was a brilliant idea-I am not exactly the type of woman who carries a lot of toiletries, and I can't imagine starting to use a hair dryer once we go cruising if I don't regularly use one now. Additionally, as I am the go-to person for finding and storing stuff on the boat, I am constantly pulling boxes and containers out to the tool or part we need that is invariably nested at the bottom of the box. Finally, the concept of totally removing the entire system from the boat was appealing; and the head when we bought it was leaking in several places (and in my opinion a little stinky), so the options were either replace or remove.

The first step was cleaning out the holding tank. We had pumped it out prior to the memorial day bbq (see previous post), thinking that after the bbq we could start pulling out the plumbing and head. Unfortunately it turned out someone used the head during the bbq, and then realized they had no idea what to do next (you know who you are). So, we had to pump out the holding tank one final time. This involved pumping and rinsing, pumping and rinsing, fill the tank with water and vinegar, pump and rinse, etc. You get the idea.
Back at the dock, we started to remove the hoses and fittings to the head, sink, shower sump and forward bilge. This step was possibly one of the most disgusting things I've ever done. The odor of open head plumbing that has been in use for ten or so years is remarkably strong and we never knew when we pulled off some hose if dirty water would come shooting down the end onto us. This was not a pleasant process. Eventually everything (head, sink, pump and many feet of hose) was sitting on the dock, and while the odor still lingered, I hoped that eventually it would disappear.

Next we cleaned. I will not go into gory details, but leave you with one image: me crouched in the sail locker in the v-berth, with my whole arm in the holding tank, scrubbing then vacuuming everything out with the wet-vac, then scrubbing again.

At this point the head area was a mess, with the bench and sink ripped out, the veneer stripped off the wall and hull, and the fiberglass pan exposed. When we took people out sailing during this time, we just closed the door and hoped that no one would ask about the closed door or need to use the head.

Then came the putting-it-all-back-together stage. For weeks we scoured stores for what we needed, debated in parking lots about the merits of particular wood or metal, returned stuff, changed our mind. It was a time of trial and error. A highlight was placing in the wood for the work bench. Suddenly we could see the space becoming a real utility space. The vise went in shortly after that. Then came the hunt for material to replace the veneer. Stainless steel sheets were the first idea, but rejected due to cost and a slight dispute about the merits of having tread on the walls. Today we installed the final version which is a combination of many trips to Tap Plastics, 2 layers of sheeting on each side.

There are still things to figure out; our next steps will be anchoring the tool boxes, attaching the electrical box, creating storage underneath the bench (and possibly a drawer), and buying cedar for supporting the bucket. The plan with the bucket is to have a removable bucket (with wag bags as recommended by Lin and Larry Pardey), with a toilet seat and a bench that will close on top of the seat that can be used to shower or sit on while working.
But the bulk of the project is done; our tools are in one place and we have bench space for projects that we are already using.



Changing the staysail from roller furler to hank-on
We are also converting the staysail back to hank on. Thanks to the ever-handy craigslist we successfully sold the furler unit, and ordered new wire and other necessities from the friendly people at Svendsens.
One small snag that we are running into is that the Furlex system we removed is all metric. This is not conducive to finding parts that fit, here in a country that doesn't use the metric system. We considered ways to just "make it work," like just popping a 1/2" pin into the 14mm hole and "keeping an eye on it." As this is my preferred method, I was comfortable moving forward with this. Luckily for us both, Jacob found an article by Brion Toss on this exact tissue which clearly states that this will compromise the integrity of the whole system. Here's the article if you are interested: http://www.briontoss.com/education/archive/miscoct98.htm
So today we removed the deck-mounted chain plate, which depending on price we will either have drilled out to fit a 5/8" or completely reworked. We ended up using the staysail halyard to gently pull up the chain plate, it was so weird watching this huge chunk of metal slowly ease up through the deck!

And don't get the wrong impression, we've also been getting out sailing in between all this work! So that's the update for now; more soon.