1.24.2022 - 2.13.2022 Boat Life Version of Dirty Jobs+

The past 3 weeks we've been busy doing small project/upgrades around the boat.

• We ordered new adhesive carpeting for the steps from the salon to each hull so Ollie could have more traction going up and down.

• Our replacement paddleboard got delivered!

• We got news that our battery/solar upgrades that we ordered with Jesse have shipped! We've been checking each week on a status because once they arrive in St. Thomas, we can start the install process.

• We connected with a couple to potentially crew with us for our passage back to Florida :)

• Our new water maker got delivered - see below for install/troubleshooting process.

• We consulting with Jesse's business partner, Mark, on updating/upgrading our fridge/freezer doors - see below for project pics.

• We diagnosed that our master head (toilet) has a clog because the flushing ability is no longer working - see below for details on this ultimate dirty job!

• Our generator is on the fritz again :(

On Facebook, there are various sailing/crew finding groups, and on one of them we saw a post from a couple, Jess and Matt, who are interested in gaining sailing experience, They've been living the #vanlife for about 3 years and hope to one day own a catamaran themselves. After a couple weeks of chatting through Facebook Messenger, we setup a Zoom meeting. It was great to meet/chat with them and we plan to reconnect about the options of them coming aboard in a few weeks :)

Because of the troubles we had with the hoses of our old water maker, we decided to upgrade to a Seatwater Pro, which makes 40 gallons/hr of fresh water! This is double what the old water maker could do and means that in 6 hours, we can completely refill our water tanks from zero to full. In addition to a new machine, Mike also updated how it's configured under the port forward bed. The way it was previously setup, you had to undo the entire bed in order to access the water maker to turn it on. Instead, he mounted the parts to the inner walls, mounted the control panel to the front facing drawer, and converted the drawer that went into the berth into a hinged door for easier access.

About a week after we got the new water maker installed, we noticed that our total dissolved solids (TDS) meter had been reading between 420-460ppm - the TDS meters is what measures the salinity (amount of salt in the water). This is well within the limit of healthy drinking water (anything <1000ppm is safe), however, according to cruisers in the community with the same unit of water maker, their TDS meters read 200-250ppm. Furthermore, the unit manual states that if the TDS is >500, it's time to change the membranes (the membrane is what removes salt).

Out of precaution, we took it partially apart, looking at each membrane tube individually to try to troubleshoot and diagnose. When only one membrane tube was running, our TDS ranged from 30-150ppm, but when we put them both together again, were back at 400-450ppm. We're not quite sure why it's reading so high together, but since we're still in the safe range, we decided to continue to monitor weekly.

Next up, we reached out to others in a Lagoon 440 owners group about solutions for their fridge and freezer doors. The way it's setup in our galley is that the fridge and freezer are behind a cabinet door that you have to open, and then open the fridge/freezer door. Below are the "before" pics of the cabinets where the fridge (left) and freezer (right) are.

We wanted to update the mounting so that both the fridge and freezer doors are flush with the rest of the cabinetry (similar to a traditional kitchen). Jesse's business partner has done this project before on his boat and others and so we contracted him out to help! Below are the "after" pics!

We also discovered that our master head is no longer able to flush, most likely due to a clog. Trying to troubleshoot/diagnose this has been the dirtiest job to date since living aboard. Last weekend, we started the troubleshooting process by disassembling the toilet, disassembling the macerator pump (the part of the plumbing that chops up the poo to make it flow into the holding tank), cleaned out the check valve (a one-way valve to carry contents from the toilet to the holding tank), and cleaned out the tubing with a combination of a brush and ocean water. We also disassembled the tubing that feeds into the holding tanks and sits behind the shower wall. None of this worked to resolve the clog. We stopped by the local marine store to get a new check valve, but the sizes they had were too small or too big. We still attempted to replaced the check valve with one of the ones we bought, but we couldn't get the fittings to work.

During the week, Mike picked up a toilet auger, which is a tool that has a coil line that you can snake down the plumbing tubing to unclog toilets. We also took another trip to the marine store and the correct size check valve was back in stock. This weekend, we disassembled the toilet again, replaced the check valve, and used the toilet auger on the tubing near the toilet and in the holding tank. We were able to get the toilet to flush, but it's still weak and very slow, which we think means the clog is still there and in a part of the tubing we can't easily access on our own (e.g. under the bulk head flooring). We have given up in our attempt to fix and will be reaching out to a plumber this week.

Through this process, I'm thankful for three things-

1. I'm so glad Poo-Pourri deodorizing spray exists! This and intermittent breezes from the ceiling hatch saved us from the retched smells of our waste. (https://pourri.com/)

2. We have a backup automatic head. Even though we can't use our master toilet, we are able to use the port aft head.

3. We have a backup manual head. If we get a clog in our backup automatic head, we have a manual toilet option in the port forward head.

Lastly, this past week our generator is on the fritz again. We started to notice that it would suddenly shut off after been on and running for 2-4 hours. At first we thought it could be due to low fuel in the engine that powers the generator, at that it was an emergency/safety shut off, which it wasn't. Then we thought it was related to our overall house voltage being low as another emergency/safety shut off, which is wasn't. We reached out to the community to see if others have experience this issue and had any recommendations for use to troubleshoot/diagnose the problem. The top suggestions were that the oil needs to be changed, the oil filter needs to be replaced, or the fuel filter needs to be replaced. Mike changed the oil and it didn't fix the problem. We bought a new fuel filter to change out and that didn't fix the problem.

The biggest inconveniences right now of not having a generator is-

• Mike can't run his coffee machine because it takes too much power. He has to use a kettle pot (like what you use when you camp) for now.

• We can't run our water maker as it rquires the generator to run (too much power for the inverter).

• We can't use our dryer function on our washer/dryer combo unit. The drying feature uses too much power for the inverter so instead we have to hang dry our clothes. We also should conserve water and not run the washing feature and instead can use the marina laundromat services.

Due to this, we stopped at Crown Bay Marina this weekend to refuel and refill our water tanks. Hopefully we can get the generator fixed sometime this week, but if not, we'll have to make regular stops at the marina for water until it's fixed. Jesse offered to come take a look to see if he can help to fix it sometime this upcoming week, so fingers crossed.

And so I don't end this post on a problem, Ollie continues to live his best life on the boat, completely un-phased by all the projects :)