Let me start by telling you: this project is no joke! I have spent over 40 hours on it this week, and I’m only through with the locker body. I haven’t even started the process of cutting big holes in Holiday and mounting this bad boy. And, I also want to say that I know why Jesus was a carpenter…because it takes miracles! Definitely not something I want to do on a regular basis. With that said, rewind back a week where I started cutting pieces of marine plywood into a circle for the bottom of the locker, a hoop …

So, I went about cutting the fiberglass pipe to the correct height for the propane locker. This pipe will be the main body of the locker that the propane tank sits in along with a top, bottom, and some other pieces that I still have to make, all caulked together for a vapor tight seal and vented over board in case of a leak. Let me tell you, this fiberglass pipe is substantial! I went through 2 batteries just cutting around the circumference with a diamond grit blade made for cutting cast iron! I think the propane tank could blow …

One of the last items on the “To Do” list was to exchange or refill the compressed natural gas tanks that we use for cooking. This was a task I had never done before due to the tanks last a while, and we don’t cook all that much on the boat since we aren’t living on it yet. I had read that exchanging the tanks was becoming non existent and had never really looked into refilling. Well, it turns out you have to go to an unmanned fill station made for city vehicles that run off CNG and use an …

Lindy and I have always noticed condensation on the tops of the refrigerator lids and that they are just two, one inch thick boards without insulation. Also, there is no gasket to make an air tight seal when closed. Basically, we are making the compressor work a lot harder than it should have to. Air conditioning the cabin of the boat by way of the fridge sounds like a great idea in theory, but I’m pretty sure it’s not making it any cooler in there for us on a hot tropical day. Let’s make that fridge do what it’s made …

Today we set out to rebed the anchor roller and a mount for the spinnaker pole that we had noticed needed attention. Rebedding is pretty simple: remove the piece of hardware, clean it and the deck up really good, add some sort of caulking, and replace. Over the years it’s needed when the caulking hardens to make sure water stays where it should…outside the boat. As is typical, while doing one chore, you find something else that is broken. After Lindy scraped the hardware, she happened upon this piece of plastic laying near the mast. “What’s that?” you say. Ah, …