I must admit some people have the knack of keeping their boats neat as a pin, while others do not.
I think we fall somewhere between the two. I actually have a schedule for repair and maintenance work although there is a clear note which says "not today" against every item in the "date required" column.
Every now and then, out of the blue something like the main water supply valve, which may well have been close to the top of the list of things not to do quite yet, decides to upset my carefully considered schedule.
Fortunately before I had regained my senses this week and given up any thought of doing any actual work, I had conjured some vague notion that I may need to replace said valve one day, and we'd allowed the water tank to run to almost empty to make it easier.
Unfortunately nothing is ever easier on a boat. In order to replace the valve, the tank needed to be moved and lifted a little, and to do that 150 kg of cement ballast needed removal through a space which was just a lot too small for it to fit in one piece.
When we bought the boat my original list had removal of those cement bags at the very top of it, although clearly marked to be done "not today". Rather than describe the effort required to break up that much cement using an electrician's screwdriver and a tack hammer while inverted in a tiny enclosed space, I will simply confirm that it wasn't nearly as much fun as as not doing it would have been.
By mid afternoon all the new components of the plumbing were back in a neat row, interconnected with water flowing from tank to pump as it should, and in the process I'd managed to move the leak almost a metre.
I put a plastic bowl under it, picked up the list of things to make and do, wrote "leak near water pump" and marked in the "date required" column: "not today".
I think we fall somewhere between the two. I actually have a schedule for repair and maintenance work although there is a clear note which says "not today" against every item in the "date required" column.
Every now and then, out of the blue something like the main water supply valve, which may well have been close to the top of the list of things not to do quite yet, decides to upset my carefully considered schedule.
Fortunately before I had regained my senses this week and given up any thought of doing any actual work, I had conjured some vague notion that I may need to replace said valve one day, and we'd allowed the water tank to run to almost empty to make it easier.
Unfortunately nothing is ever easier on a boat. In order to replace the valve, the tank needed to be moved and lifted a little, and to do that 150 kg of cement ballast needed removal through a space which was just a lot too small for it to fit in one piece.
When we bought the boat my original list had removal of those cement bags at the very top of it, although clearly marked to be done "not today". Rather than describe the effort required to break up that much cement using an electrician's screwdriver and a tack hammer while inverted in a tiny enclosed space, I will simply confirm that it wasn't nearly as much fun as as not doing it would have been.
By mid afternoon all the new components of the plumbing were back in a neat row, interconnected with water flowing from tank to pump as it should, and in the process I'd managed to move the leak almost a metre.
I put a plastic bowl under it, picked up the list of things to make and do, wrote "leak near water pump" and marked in the "date required" column: "not today".
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