Work commences. We moved the whole crew off the boat and into a condo this morning, leaving me to get a long list of work done. And today was a success. Eight hours of work with tools all over the floor, engine lids left wide open, water shut off all day long, and countless other things that would not have been possible with little fingers on the boat.

I started the day off with a ceremonious toilet removal. Then came the crappy part, pun intended, of replacing all the toilet lines. On the catamaran this was a simple procedure including just one three foot section of hose. But on a monohull apparently there are other things to consider, such as the boat heeling over thirty degrees. So instead of one short hose there are a grand total of four on this boat. They go up and through a breather valve, then back down to a Y-Valve and finally through a ninety degree turn and out the thru-hull. And really if there is one thing I hate working with on a boat it is that thick inch and a half toilet hose. It never wants to go on the fittings and it has almost no give to it to help you along. But eventually the toilet was installed and I could check the first thing off the list.

Next up is replacing all the water hoses. Some of them are incredibly skanky looking and some are just foggy. They are all going so we can start fresh. I was rocking those out right up until the last two that lead from the engine compartment, under the refrigerator, and into the kitchen sink. They are completely out of reach in the engine compartment, and even if they weren’t they are also foamed right into the refrigerator insulation.

Funny thing is that I had pretty much given up on those two until I just wrote that last paragraph and it occurred to me that instead of trying to run the hoses the same way I could just run two new ones a totally different direction through a different bilge. It was midnight when I was working on that so I was getting a little tired and my mind may not have been functioning on high, but still you’d think that solution would have dawned on me earlier.

Also installed an electric fuel pump. I bought this months ago but never quite got around to the project. So when we ran out of diesel in one tank and sucked an engine full of air again I was left to hang upside down in the engine compartment pumping furiously away on the manual pump while Ali stood over me asking, “Why haven’t you installed that electric pump yet?” Well, now I have. So there.

And I changed the oil. A simple job I concede, but still, it was on a list and now it’s not. I’m happy. Now it’s one o’clock and at least one kid is sure to make sure we don’t get a sound night’s sleep, so I’d better at least get in bed and try.