Ice Cream

I like it.  I like it too much.  In the 23 years we’ve lived on our boat, though, we’ve never been able to keep ice cream onboard.  We have a good refrigerator, but it does not have a freezer.  During the years we were away from the U.S. cruising, ice cream was what we craved after a long and usually hot passage.  As soon as we anchored in a new port, we’d head ashore with our passports, boat papers, and two spoons.  Once the paperwork was done, we’d find a store, buy a two liter container of ice cream and usually eat it right on the steps of the store.

Ice cream is now one of the few foods that Pam can eat pretty well, so we often go to the grocery store on the way to the trailer and pick up a pint for her to eat.  I help.  I do.

Yesterday I got two half gallon containers of ice cream (coffee and vanilla bean) and put them in Island Girl’s fridge.  Today I was only there for a short time and did little work, just installed a cabinet door.  But, the ice cream is frozen solid in the freezer, so it’ll be ready for Pam tomorrow when we get over there.  How cool is that?  Ice cream in our own freezer!  I’m a happy boy.

Island Girl’s Systems are Go

Not much actual work today, but a big step forward. Yesterday I moved the trailer near a faucet and filled our fresh tanks. Today, the water pump and water heater got their electrical hookups done. Note to self: always make sure that you've hooked up the wires to the circuit breaker panel before you wonder why the pump doesn't work.

No leaks at all in the PEX. There's a drip at the water heater drain that needs attention and one at the strainer basket in the sink. Easy fixes. I will never like plumbing, but the PEX with the copper crimps and brass fittings works really well.

So we've now got heat, a cold fridge, hot and cold water, and a stove all functional.

Little by little, polishing continues.  Rain has about made it impossible for the last few days, but I’m planning to do it just a little at a time anyway.  Compounder and F7 Nuvite is all I’ve used so far.

-steve

Plumbing Water and Plumbing Gas

I still hate plumbing, but it's almost over. Fill lines for the two tanks and the sink drain remain to be done with the water. The pics show the layout in the galley with a few ball valves instead of check valves.

The low point is right at the water heater and using the heater bypass, I'm able to get away with a single drain line for the system.

Double flares have been keeping me busy for a week or so. I've been lying under the trailer on rain and mud soaked cardboard surrounded by the state animal of western Washington, the slug. I put in shutoff valves for each of the four gas appliances. The propane system is all hooked up now, but the tubing still needs to be secured to the frame. I'd never done the double flares before, so it was scary turning the gas on this afternoon after the last connection was made. Had a couple of joints that needed another pull on the wrench and one just plain crummy flare that evaded my quality control and had to be replaced.

Even though we've had temporary gas lines run for the heater for 2 years, it was still pretty cool to fire up the stove for the first time.

And, despite the rain, polishing has begun. Weather looks good for the next few days, so I'm planning on getting some more compounding done.

The curtain sewing project has given me the sewing bug.  I’m going to try to sew my own awning and window shades and bought an old Pfaff 130 sewing machine on eBay for the task.  It is a year older than me and six older than the trailer.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t well packed and arrived with the base for the case pretty well destroyed.

I took it completely apart and repaired it with epoxy and fiberglass, so it’s back in pretty good shape now.

The machine came through it fine and should be able to handle any awning work I throw at it.  My own capabilities are limited to throw pillows right now, but at least an awning is on the horizon.

-steve

I Still Don’t Like Plumbing

but this PEX stuff is really nice.

I’m using the brass fittings with the copper crimp rings and it all goes together really quick.  My system is very simple with only a galley faucet and and shower and toilet.  It’s being made outside in modular sections, one for the bath and one for the galley.

The plumbing for the shower and toilet sits inside a still to be finished cabinet between the bed and the bath with the feed coming from under the bed.  Almost everything was done outside except for the last two elbows connecting the feed lines.  The crimper needs quite a bit of room.

So the only crimps that had to be done inside are the two at the top left in the above picture.

Then everything slides into place inside the cabinet.

Outside, the fills for the two fresh water tanks, the city water hookup, and the fresh tank vent are all mounted in place.  They’ll just need Vulkem and final fastening to finish.  These four fittings are all marine style.

58 degrees is forecasted for Saturday, so we might head for the car wash tomorrow to get ready for some outside polish work.  It’s way past time for my summer uniform of shorts and flip flops.

-steve

Progress That Shows

Most of the time I feel like I work and work on Island Girl and nothing really shows. Lately, though, things are beginning to come together and often a little work yields big results.

The chrome plater finally got my pieces done and the scare light and the Bargmann H20-2 I doubt have ever looked quite this good. Nice to be able to get rid of the vice grip door handle I've been using for the last two months.

Woot.com had a really good deal on a full size mattress and it is now cut to fit and in place. I wasn't ready for it, but the deal was too good to skip. When it arrived, the package firmly said it had to be opened to expand within 3 days, so it's in, ready or not.

On the big job front, my buddy Jim, who usually mans the rivet gun, is sewing curtains. I'm a wiz at hand sewing, but hopeless with a machine, so his help is really appreciated. It's a bark cloth fabric that I was afraid was going to be too bold for my taste, but I'm really happy with the way it looks.

There's a sink and a faucet visible in the pics too, holding tanks now have fittings, and I'm collecting the last of the crimp fittings for the PEX.

-steve

A Toaster in My Toaster

Got a package in the mail a couple of weeks ago that I wasn’t expecting and inside was a wonderful old toaster for Island Girl from Pam’s sister.  It’s perfect!!  Thanks, Barb.


As you can also see, the laminate for the countertops is going in.  Had our caregiver today and I didn’t want Pam with me when I did the stinky gluing, so it was a good day for it.  Ran out of time with one piece still to go, but that’s OK.
The entry for the bathroom has been an ongoing project, laminating the upper and lower parts, one piece of Baltic birch at a time.


It’s not much different than the original, just a smaller opening and more curves, but I’m happy with the way it looks.

And the old vanity with its curved top is morphing into the new computer station.  That curve was a tough one.
-steve

Rain and Wind

It seems like we’ve had rain and wind nonstop for a month.  I know it’s really not that bad, but it seems like it.  The boat has been heeled over in the wind and gloomy and dark down below.  Pam continues to slowly get worse and I still try to get her off the boat for awhile each day, but it’s a big effort getting her on and off as she just about can’t walk anymore.  If you know anything about sailboats, think bosun’s chair.  So, this morning, even though I had our caregiver coming to give me a break, I was dark and down and gloomy and depressed, mostly from the weather.

As far as trailer work goes, things are pretty good.  Having to work slowly and deliberately as I’m in one of those stages where it’s easy to make stupid mistakes and I have little patience for myself on that stuff.  But, it’s almost magical the way the trailer is coming together after all this time.  So many things I’ve thought about and planned for during the last two years are actually in the trailer now and they mostly look and work like I wanted.  That’s way cool.

Outside, I’ve got the louvered panel for the fridge air intake installed.  Louvered panel came from Fergie's Custom Louvers and I used the Vintage Style Drip Caps from VTS.  Fergie’s louver polished up nice and easy, but Steve’s drip cap was a pain.  I knew it came white and need to be stripped, but it didn’t strip—even Aircraft Paint Remover didn’t touch the finish.  Only sanding got it down to bare aluminum and it was a lot of work.  It was also too long but that was expected and an easy fix.

I used nutplates and machine screws to fasten the louvered panel after making up some C channel to reinforce the huge hole I cut in the trailer.

Chris, Aluminium Idler, put up a post in his blog about using a torch to heat and bend his door back into shape.  I used the same technique after his inspiration to put a huge bend in a straight piece of trim for the bathroom entry sill.

Today I worked on the upper piece to that bathroom door and on the curved top for the former vanity cabinet just forward of the bathroom.

That little cabinet top has a really sharp curve on it and I could not get the usual 1/8” Baltic Birch to make the bend no matter what I tried.  I ended up using a couple pieces of 1/16” Aircraft Birch laminated together to get it done.

But back to the wind and rain. . . I worked about half the day on those two projects above and decided to spend the afternoon sitting and reading in front of the fire in the heater.  I’m parked in a storage lot which doesn’t sound very pretty, but Island Girl is in the back on the grass with lots of trees around and a couple of eagles often overhead.  The trailer doesn’t heel in the wind like the boat and the rain sounds really soothing on the aluminum.  And nine Caravanner windows are much better than tiny portholes.  My gloom was pretty well gone.

-steve