Sandy and Karen before our "big day"!
We went to the marina with Sue last week to help out a friend on some of the boats he manages for others. We really didn't know what needed to be done, but you help others when they ask....so....away we went. Karen and Sue worked on cleaning and prepping a 50' power yacht for its owner. Lots of cleaning and prepping...cleaned the heads (the toilet area and there were 3 of them), cleaned the fridge and galley, cleaned the cushions, cleaned the carpets and floors, made up the beds, cleaned about a million wooden louvers over all of the ports (windows), straightening out and "prettying" things up, etc! Wow...they were busy! So, being the lazy one, I sure didn't want to do that! I was given a small task on a little sailboat...on the head...in this case, the actual head (the toilet). It was not working (plugged?) and it was an electric one. Well, I found out the pump circuit fuse was fried. Instanly, I recognized that I had found the problem...just replace it and everything would work fine (then I could go get some beer and go watch Karen and Sue work). Turning the pump on fried the fuse again. OOHH NOOO... pumps usually only do this if they are plugged or seized! The pump needed to be removed...it was at the bottom of the bowl...it was a macerator pump, one of those gems that chops up the stuff after you do "your thing" and then pumps it somewhere else (I've discussed "where" before). This made me wish I was doing Karen and Sue's boat by myself. Anyway, I've changed dirty diapers before, so how bad could it be? Honestly, I had horrible visions of full hoses, backed up toilet traps and things no one is ever supposed to see or touch. I enlisted some help from one of the friends' employees and went to work. After a lot of working, hosing down, straining, holding our breaths, and airing out the area, the pump came out. Evidently, sea water (which the head uses to flush with) is highly corrosive to electric parts and seizes windings on pumps when it can. Luckily, the previous head "user" hadn't been using it for awhile, so the job wasn't really bad.
After getting myself cleaned up, I was given the treat of fixing a light...the one on top of the mast on another sailboat. No, you don't take down the mast to get at it. Nor do you have some method of lowering the light from the top. Someone has to go up in a harness, hanging from some ropes. Of course I was overjoyed, as I haven't done something like that since working up in the woods and climbing trees to hang blocks (really large pulleys). Anyway, up I went...
One of the other employees had to crank me up manually with one of the boats winches. He sure didn't have fun, but I did! And the view was fantastic! I repaired the broken wire and, reluctantly, had them lower me back down. I kind of felt like my nephew, Tyler, who is a lineman for an electric company in the Portland, Oregon area. Karen had a great time taking pictures of me working instead of her and Sue. We all celebrated our "fun" day with a nice dinner at the "house on the hill"!
Hmmmmm, will work for food? HA
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