May 30, 2010.

Got up and off the boat early so we could walk down to the farmers market in the center of town. Christy was jonesing for some corn on the cob. Evidently we’re spoiled rotten. The farmers market here consisted of a few strawberries, a bison jerky guy and a pair of bakers. I mean, the bread looked great but it wasn’t corn on the cob. We’ve been to farmers markets in several towns in every state along the eastern seaboard and this was the first one that we found a bit lacking. But it’s still early in the season up this way so we’ll give it another shot later in the year.

After walking home we decided to start knocking projects off the dreaded “to-do” list. Our windlass hasn’t worked in close to a year so it was high time to attempt to address that issue. I’ve been hauling the hook by hand every time we drop it but sooner or later the situation where Christy has to raise the hook is bound to present itself so I gotta get it fixed.

I disassembled the gear train inside the cover and found it to be still full of grease and everything looked good. Once I removed the electric motor from the unit it ran as it should when I depressed the foot control. However, I did find that with everything disconnected I wasn’t able to turn the gypsy at all. So I removed the entire unit and will take it to work where I will clean everything up and replace the bearings on the main shaft.

After cleaning up my mess at the bow I created another one on the stern. We had a hatch that’s never leaked before it started to leak during a horrific thunderstorm the other night so it was time to reseal the hatch. Especially since it is right over the bed. A little tape, a little sealer, some sweat and the hatch is once again watertight.

After that the pumpout boat came by to make a withdrawal. While I was dealing with the stool bus I decided to tackle a head problem. My nose doesn’t work right and Christy has been claiming to smell something horrid INSIDE the boat every time one of us uses the head. So after a little investigation we found that the vent hose for the forward holding tank was the culprit. The vent fitting on the hull was both clogged and rotted to the point of having to be replaced. That meant a trip to West Marine for some parts. After putting in the new vent I’m told that there are no longer malodorous spirits invading our living space.

Thank God tomorrow is a holiday because I feel like I’ve been at work all day.