Picking up the Pace

We are picking up the pace, as it is not quite as cold these days, and thus a little more bearable on board.  While Mike was clearing a space for the brackets for the "frankengen", he was moving hoses and found that the drain from the aft sink choked from 1 1/4" to 3/4" and was completely blocked.  He also found a bad connector in another hose.  Well, they are about 30 years old, so they were replaced:

New connector and bad connector

1 1/4" chokes down to 3/4" (connection at lower end)

You can see the 30-year calcium build-up and the new "T" connector here:

30-year calcium build-up

New "T" connector; no choke point

Things are rolling a little faster now.  Thanks to our friend Gary, Mike was able to finish welding the brackets for mounting the "frankengen" (a homemade version of an Aquagen) in the engine room.  What we're calling the "frankengen" is a Kubota diesel engine, which drives (1) a refrigeration compressor, (2) a large-framed alternator for charging the batteries, and (3) a high-pressure pump for a reverse osmosis (RO) watermaker.  He had assembled the entire unit and had tested the alignment of the belts, etc.  Then he marked the alignment of all the pieces, so he could re-assemble it on the boat.  It was disassembled and we were waiting for the opportunity to take the Kubota piece to the boat when the seas were calm and there was no snow or ice on the deck.  The Kubota was awkward to handle and weighed 119 lbs.

The "Frankengen"

Today was a good day.  It was in the mid 40s and the sun was shining and there was no breeze.  Mike had prepped the engine room by clearing a space and mounting the brackets.  Now, all we had to do was lug it to the dock, drag it out onto the finger pier and maneuver it onto the boat, into the engine room, and up onto the brackets.  It was a two-person task (plus a little help from the simple machines on Abake).  We used a jib halyard to move it from the finger pier to the deck (we're bow-in-first in the slip), then the main halyard to move it to the cockpit.

The throne awaits Frankengen

Made it to the cockpit

Then we opened the aft hatch all the way and guided the Kubota through the hatch to the aft cabin floor.  From there it was no more simple machines, only humans who moved it into the engine room and lifted it up onto the brackets and secured it.  Whew!  We feel that we accomplished a major milestone today.

Down the hatch!

Securing the Kubota

Now the other pieces need to be re-assembled, hoping of all hopes that everything again lines up and runs smoothly.  We'll keep you posted.