April 8th -- Installing A New Cleat

Happy Easter!! Instead of hunting for eggs I took on a little 'boat project.' My boat was missing a cleat in a very important place: the port stern quarter. So I 'stole' a cleat from another useless location and mounted it in the appropriate place. Only problem was, there already was a bracket mounted there...



The offening piece was grudgingly removed, after much resistance, and the spot was sanded, sealed, and painted.



The new cleat, securely mounted and looking like it was there all along.

Water Water everywhere, or Water System--The Final Fix

So I decided to fix my water system once and for all. The shore water/tank input was too complicated, so I opted for a single tube running from the tank to the water pump. That way I can circulate the water in the tank and replenish it with the deck hose when needed. The red lever is the cutoff valve. Trying to fix the leaks, I only got water splashed in my face once or twice!


I got running water!!! I don't believe it. and the leaks are slight enough to be tolerable. So now I don't have to walk down the pier to the boat house to take a shower in the morning. But before I can shower, I got to check and see if the sump pump works...



The pump was working, but not extracting any water. So I took off the drainage hose and blew really hard until it was cleared. Hooked it back up to the pump and Eureka! it works like a champ. Of course, the water sensor isn't working correctly, so I only leave the pump on while showering. I've taken the habit of doing the same with the water system, only turning it on when I need to run the faucets. That way if a leak developed the water pump wouldn't pump all the water out into the boat somewhere. I'm leaving the hot-water heater disconnected for now. I've grown accustomed to taking cool showers in the mornings. Not exactly a cold shower, but definitely a refreshing way to start your day!

March 31st--Living Aboard!!!

I'm finally all moved in. After a stressful week of packing and sorting, I put most of my stuff in storage, cleaned out my apartment and started the live-aboard lifestyle. What is the live-aboard lifestyle, you ask? Right now that means taking pictures with the sunset as a background and trying not to let your camera fall overboard. I'm too tired to smile.



Okay, so it's not ship-shape yet, but at least all my stuff is here. As you can see, there is alot of head-room in the main cabin. There's nowhere onboard that I have to duck, very important late at night and first thing in the morning. I think I'm gonna like living on a boat. Sure there are things about it that take getting used to, like the steady motion, lack of hot water (or right now no water--we'll fix that later) and lack of space, but there is a feeling I get everytime that I realize that I'm finally living the dream that makes it all worth it. I wake up every morning to realize that I'm on a boat. And not just any boat, my boat. The work I've put into Algún Día has really made her mine. Now if I can just finish a few other things, she'll be presentable...

Too Much Stuff...

"...I used to rule my world from a payphone 'an ships out on the sea,
but now times are rough and I got too much stuff, I can't explain the likes of me..."

-from "One Particular Harbour"




On the Left is my boat. On the right is the SECOND load of stuff that I'm gonna have to try and find a place for. I guess what doesn't find a place goes overboard.



Welcome to the state of dissaray. I don't even know how to spell disarray, that's how disorganized I am right now. One thing at a time.

Gimme Jimmy!!!!

Some pics from the recent Jimmy Buffett concert in Anguilla. Some friends and I chartered a plane to make it over there. He was playing on the beach at a place called The Dune Preserve. The coolest place you'll ever see Jimmy play.

Alot of people came by boat so there was a long
line on the beach to get in. You can bet if he plays there
next year I'll be taking Algún Día to get there.

Sunset Thoughts

Sometimes I find myself wondering if all this is worth it. So far, all the work I've done hasn't really paid off in any way that I can see. But then yesterday I saw this sunset from my slip at the marina. I realized that in a few weeks I'll be living aboard Algún Día and I'll get the see alot more sunsets. I guess I'm really Living the Dream whatever that is.

Installing the Air Conditioner

Before......



And after.....

Water System Part Deux

Still working on the water system...



I wanted to replace the hose connected to the water tank, but first had to drain all the water out. This was accomplished by letting the water pour into my bilge. Yes I intentionally dumped water into the bilge! It was a good test for that automatic bilge pump I installed. Let's hope I never have to use it so much again.



Here is the shiny new hose connected to the tank. It's the smaller one in the background. The large hose in the foregound is the water intake. It comes from an inlet on the deck. You can barely see the old hose (black) coiled up in the top part of the picture. It was getting pretty old an needed to be replaced.



Here is my "new" water heater. I had to take out the old one because it wasn't rated for the electricity of my boat. This one holds about 2 gallons of hot water and runs off of AC power.


Here I'm putting together the shutoff valve that will be between my water tank and water pump. It's good to have new water hoses in the boat. You don't want to know what the old ones looked like.

Back to work...

After taking a weekend "off" from the boat, I'm back at it. I have about 3 weekends left to get the boat ready for liveaboard. The last big obstacle to overcome will be the water system. Here is the hole I had to cut for the new head faucet.



Looks pretty good. The nozzle pulls out to become a shower.

The Maiden Voyage

Last weekend was a 3-Day weekend so I took Algún Día out for the first time since buying her. Leaving the slip was a little hairy but I brought her back in without bumping into anything. We motored around the harbor and toasted another beautiful day in Puerto Rico. It was great to do something on the boat besides work.



The Capitial building in Old San Juan, and a pic of some work boats.



Here's a real "fixer-upper." Bet you could buy it cheap.

Boat Project #576: Fuel Cans

Those fuel cans don't look very secure tied to the lifelines like that. I'll have to come up with something better than that.


I'll just bolt a board to the side....



...And presto we have a secure place to store extra fuel.

Up In The Bow

The docking lines on the front were looking a little frayed, so I decided to clean them up. "Whip it, whip it good!" Sorry, that's a little ropeworking joke there. When you wrap the end of a rope to keep it from fraying it's called whipping.


Now everything looks alot better. I also made a new "snubber" for the anchor chain. That's the red line underneath the docking line on the right. Almost looks ship-shape, don't it?


The Anchor on the bow has seen better days. Yet another thing I'll have to replace one day.

New shower sump

Here is the old sump pump and drainage pan. When you take a shower it pumps the drainage water off. As you can see, it hasn't been replaced in quite a while. Yuck!





















Here I am installing a new pump and water sensor, using the old pan. I wired it together for automatic sensing.




















Here is the new shower sump, connected to the exhaust hose and wired up. The pan is wedged up underneath the shower drain. Hope it works!

LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!!

We got the lights and electricity working. By "we" I mean the electrician checked out my work and made a couple of minor adjustments. He told me to change two wires in the main shorepower breaker and then we flipped the switch and what-ya-know it worked. I felt pretty proud when the electrician said he approved of all my work, minus a couple of bad connections.






I'd been working on the electrical system for two months, and this guy spends about an hour on my boat and suddenly everything works. Here's a picture after he just touched my stereo and it started working, go figure. You'll notice that the electrial panels haven't been put back in place yet. I still haven't finished wiring everything yet. It never ends!!

New water system

Before I put in a water heater I had to draw it out.















Here's what it looks like under the sink.
It may look crazy but now my boat has hot water.

A note from the Author...

Some people noticed that I hadn't made a new post in quite a while. It seems my camera went AWOL a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to take any pictures lately. But the work has continued every weekend, and although it hasn't been documented there are other 'moments' for me to cherish. For example, I will always remember the day I reconnected everything to the engine. What a day that was!

My camera showed back up yesterday (containing a few extra pictures I don't remember taking) and now I can get on with the blog. Thanks for checking in!

Home Interiors

I got all the boat's cushions reupholstered. It looks alot better than before.
This is the Main Salon, looking forward.

















The main settee with the table lowered.
Adding an extra cushion makes it into a double-size bed.

















The "Love Seat." Raising the back makes it into a bunk-bed.



















The "navigation station" which is just the nautical term for desk.

The front-view of the engine. That coolant-hose has a kink in it.

























Let's replace it...



















That looks alot better.

Let's Fire It Up...

There sure were alot of loose wires around the engine...




















I cleared out the useless wires and re-routed all the necessary ones. Here is the new negative bus I installed (on the right) and new wires going to the voltage regulator on the left. The regulator looks like the original one that came with the boat (30 years ago) and might need to be replaced.


















New wire/connectors for the alternator...



















This may not look like much but it's a very important milestone in this whole process. I hooked all the wires up to the engine, crossed my fingers....and it started on the first try! With a water-cooled engine, it is very important that you see water coming out with the exhaust. That means that your engine is working correctly and won't burn up.