I show up to our boat pretty excited since I'd just picked up a new stereo from West Marine and was looking forward to getting that hooked up and enjoying some Jimmy Buffett on board. However, when I show up, I get real concerned real quick. The lock that goes on the hatchboards is not there. I open her up and there are some hatches open and, given all the rain that has fallen on this part of Maryland lately, the floor (we have some cheap carpet lining the interior) is completely saturated with water.
I have a mini panic attack since I was the last one off the boat last Sunday. In my head though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't leave the hatches open and the lock off. I'm normally pretty carful about that kind of thing. The first thing I did before even stepping past the chart table was to turn the bilge pump on. I waited but didn't hear any water coming out the back. I went to double-check. No water. I lifted up the carpet and checked the bilge. Surprisingly, barely any water. That made me feel a bit better since now I knew it was only the carpet, and not a flooded boat I had to worry about.
I got a sponge and soaked up the rest of the water on top of our cabinet on the starboard side. As I'm using a towel to soak up all the water from the carpet, I keep thinking to myself "How could you have been so careless?"
After wringing out the towel for the 10th time, I decide to take a break and install the stereo. I take the new stereo out of the box and pop it out of the bracket that comes with the thing. Since our current stereo is the same type of head unit, I figured the new unit would just pop into the old unit's bracket. I scrunch into the port side locker, pull the wires out of the back of the old unit, use a small flat head to pop the stereo out of its bracket and push it out.
Fantastically enough, the new stereo just popped right. Man, is it nice when that happens. I plug the wires back in, add some power, and watch as the stereo comes to life. And yes, I did enjoy me some Jimmy Buffett.
The only disappointing thing was that I noticed in the port locker, there seemed to be some coolant just chilling in the bottom which means another project for another day.
I pop the cap off a beer and resume carpet drying duties.
My dad shows up with some new doors that we ordered for the boat from Zarcor that we are hoping end up looking like this: (see above).So he wants to try to install these doors before it gets dark and its the late afternoon. I'm already skeptical. These kind of things always take at least triple the time they should. This was, in my opinion, more of a whole day project than a quick afternoon installation.
We clamp the doors together and lo and behold the doors sit too high. This means I have to drive an hour to go get the saws so we can cut it to fit.
After some subtle suggestions that we save this for another day, I end up getting the saws.
Four hours and a lot of sanding later, we have a door that mostly fits, which means it sits just a hair too high on the starboard side and a pinch too low on the port side. But it looks pretty good.
We decide to leave the hinging of the doors for another day. I mention the coolant in the port locker to my dad who takes a look. He comments on the weirdness but doesn't see any possible leaks. Says he's surprised since our engine mechanic was down here on Tuesday and he's going to have to get him to take a look.
I knew I didn't leave the hatches open and the boards unlocked.
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