Friday, June 28, 2019

We have water!


This morning I woke up to the sound of rain coming down. But I also woke up to the sound of the kids happily doing their homework in the salon!

We couldn't quite believe our ears. Was this for real? They were doing their math work out loud and working the problems out together.

Every night before I go to bed, I will write down the next day's schoolwork on a white board. That way everyone knows what needs to be accomplished.

The routine is: wake up, go to the washroom at the marina, eat breakfast and get straight to school work.

Since Matt and I set out the cereal and bowls the night before all the kids need to do is get the milk from the fridge. We did this at home too so this is not unusual. This way we get a bit more of a lie in! 

We taught them how to open and close the top-loading fridge so they don't injure their hand or fingers. The lid is quite heavy and if done incorrectly, it can come slamming down on unsuspecting fingertips.

Today they had gone to the washroom, eaten breakfast and were doing their assigned work before we even got up. This may be a one off, but it can also be just what is expected if we play it that way.

Tai was being a great help and assisting with whatever question Aila was stuck on.

I had to pee so bad but didn't dare get up in case I ruined the good vibe.

They were both done by 9:30! We played PAY DAY again, had some free time and then lunch.

Our challenge for the day was investigating why our water wasn't coming out through the pipes and feeding through to the sinks.

We had filled the water tank pretty much to the max yesterday, so either the water pump is malfunctioning or we're missing something here.

It was the latter.

I saw a comment from one of my pictures from my post yesterday from a fellow Endeavour 42 owner. She mentioned that it was strange we were filling our water tank through the hole that was up on deck.

Her comment made me stop cold because I only thought it was the water infill hole because I had seen the diesel and waste pump out hole already on deck. The covers are marked clearly "water", "diesel" and "waste" but the cover to that hole was rusty and the writing was not visible.

So I (wrongly) assumed it was the water infill.

But in fact, the water infill is down in the cockpit! And the hole we had filled with water yesterday was the tank where waste is collected in the aft (back) toilet! There are TWO waste tanks on board the Endeavour!

Imagine my panic and stupidity!

Lesson learned: never assume anything and KNOW YOUR BOAT!

It could've been worse though. Now all we need to do is pump out the waste tank at some point at a marina. And what should come out is just a whole lot of potable water!

Time for a change of scenery.

By this time the rain was tapering off so we decided to take our dinghy out for a spin. We had the kids talk us through what they thought was the best process of what we needed to do to get us from sitting at the dock to planing on the dinghy out in the channel.

It took a while to get ourselves together since it was our first time doing it here. We had the dinghy pumped up yesterday and our gas tank filled. After locating the fuel hose, a bailer, and getting the outboard motor on, we were finally ready to go.

Did it ever feel good to be moving on the water with the wind in my face!

When we came back to the boat, we decided we should go for a walk so we made Gold Bean Cafe our destination. We had an early dinner there - delicious!

Walking long distance is something we haven't done in a long time and it felt great to stretch our legs.

This evening we all worked on some boat jobs: scrubbing the deck, making sure the scuppers (drain holes on deck and in the cockpit) were not clogged, fixing a new hose clamp on our outboard gas tank which had a small leak, suctioning out the dregs of our bilge and cleaning it out so we can install a new (secondary) bilge pump and bilge alarm later.

At bedtime we started to read Swallows and Amazons out loud. So far the kids are captivated.

Tonight Matt and I continued with our no-water-output problem. This time we know the tank is filled correctly, but why was there no water coming out?

The water pump seemed to be working fine. What was wrong?

Remember those puzzles as a kid where you have to trace wiggly and curvy lines from start to finish and find out where each line ends up? Kind of like following one line of spaghetti through a plateful of pasta?

Well, tracing a line (water, fuel, electric, etc) in a boat is like that but each spaghetti line goes up and down through various floorboards and cupboards and closets and extremely awkward spaces.

Some of the hoses are not marked and so you are simply guessing at what they could be based on the thickness of the line and the material it's made of.

Sometimes the line leads you to a pot of gold and it's all worth it because you now understand what it is all about and how it's connected.

By trying to understand the reason why we couldn't get water through the taps, we had to trace the water lines.

Still, we were finding that we were getting lost and misled and not able to find the source of the problem.

We belong to the Endeavour Boat Owner forum on Facebook and it is super helpful when we're stuck with a question. I reached out to one of the members, Caren Smith, and she was super helpful in trying to help us troubleshoot. 

Previously, she has even called us to help us on other issues. You see, more awesome proof of incredible cruisers!

In the end, what seemed to be the problem was that there was some air trapped in the water pump, causing it to not be able to pump the water. 

So Matt bled the air out of the hose and literally seconds later, there was water gushing out of every faucet! I nearly woke the kids up with my cheering.

What a great ending to an already good day.

The heads (toilets) we still haven't tried and tested yet but at least starting tomorrow we can wash dishes in the sink and use the taps to wash hands. This is an incredible milestone and will save a lot of time schlepping everything to the washroom to wash.

Goodnight, off to dream of the wonder of running water.



Although this manual is super helpful, there have been so many changes
and modifications done to our boat that some systems are a mystery.


Finn the happy dog


Dinghy is in the water but we had to move our boat forward in order to
bring the dinghy down and lower the motor onto it.


Teamwork!

Lowering the dinghy from the deck.


Solid wooden steps that the marina lent us so the kids could get on
and off the boat easily. Much better than having to climb the steel ladder!
 


Getting ready to cast off.





What an exhilarating feeling to be on the water and MOVING!


We're planing!!


Dinner at Gold Bean Cafe. So worth the walk! 


Running down the road to Gold Bean Cafe.


Walking back from Gold Bean Cafe. Great to stretch our legs.






Aila's turn to suck the gunk out of the bilge with the water squirter. 
Her whole body was in the entire compartment, very handy to 
have small people do the work in awkward places.


Using a dollar store water squirter (like a giant syringe) to suck
the bilge water out of the bilge that would not pump out, and putting
it in a used milk jug for disposal.


We filled two milk jugs of yucky bilge water.


Tai having a go with sucking the bilge water.


Filling up the PROPER tank with water this time. Doh!


You can see the reflection of the solar panels we have above
the davits. They have been steadily providing enough power for
our fridge and cabin lights this entire time.


I scrubbed the deck so hard the broom broke! Add another one to the shopping list! 


Water in the galley sink!

Water in the aft sink!

Water in the forward sink!

Finished chainplates. We just have to remove the yellow tape.
If you stick your head in this cabinet the smell of wood and varnish is incredible.

Last sunset rays of the day.


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