Day 28

Today was water heater day.  I spent a couple hours in the morning removing the old water heater and specing out what we needed to get at the store to install the new one.  It turns out we could remove the water fittings on the old heater and use them on the new one.  The fittings also lined up exactly to the plumbing lines on the boat.  Score!!  Turns out the only things we needed were 6ft. of heater hose and an electrical clamp.  The heater has a heat exchanger that uses hot antifreeze from the engine when it is running to heat the water without using electricity.  The heater hose connects the two in a loop.  When I took the old one out and looked at the connection for the heat exchanger, it was completely clogged with a green goo.  No wonder I could never get hot water by using the engine.    I called my friend Gordon who came over and picked us up and took us to Ace Hardware.  Ace is the place.  Not only did they have the electrical clamp, they even had 5/8 inch heater hose.  One stop shopping.  Score 2!  We were back at the boat in no time and went to work.  Several hours later, and about three pounds lighter from losing water sweating my ass off, I was done.  Turn on the breaker, bleed the system….we had hot water.  After that I took a hot shower.  Score 3! 

While we were out, Gordon invited us over for dinner.  Baby back ribs, potato salad and baked beans.  Yes, Score 4!   Later in the afternoon Gordon picked us up yet again, and we went back to his house.  We visited for a while, watched a little football, drank a beer, life is good.  And let me tell you Gordon cooks some mean ribs.  They were delicious, everything was delicious.  After dinner we watched a little more of the New England game, but by halftime the game was essentially over so Gordon took us back to the boat.  So great to spend time with old friends and relax.  Thanks again Connie and Gordon!

If you have been following the news, storms were expected to hit the area through the evening and night, with high winds.  As we were watching the football games they kept showing tornado watch and warning areas.  The winds were building here and lightening was really lighting up the sky.  The boats in the marina were all bobbing up and down and moving side to side on their lines in the slip.  The wind was whipping 25, 30 mph easy.  Then the rain came.  It rained really hard for about a half hour then a light rain for a couple of hours and the wind actually died down.  It turned out to be a calm night and good sleeping after all.

Monday is supposed to bring more very strong winds which will make being on the water a challenge.  Not advisable to head out on Monday, which was the original plan.  I think we will stay put for another day.  Tuesday is supposed to be a great day to be on the water.  I think we will wait for that.

Until tomorrow….