Tinkering with Transducers, Toilets, and Trim

The three weeks between our first and second project weekends flew by! We arrived in Manitowoc on Friday night, after another long drive where we kept ourselves entertained by a few podcasts, constant conversation about the boat, and salsa music. Since deciding to name the boat Idilio, we have defaulted to playing the song at least once on every drive. Sometimes more. I think it transports us to a future of enjoying this boat in good company, with some dancing surely involved. 

This time, we stayed at the Lighthouse Inn in Two Rivers, just over ten minutes from the boat. It is an old building right on the shoreline, dated yet quaint, and clean, with very large rooms and a restaurant with broad windows just feet from the waters of Lake Michigan. It must have been fancy at some point, now it felt unpretentious, somewhat like a time capsule. 

After a stop for coffee, and a very slow stop for gas (after pumping gas for over 8 minutes, still couldn't fill the car!), we managed to arrive at the boat before nine. Now that it was colder outside, we were wondering if the storage facility would be chillier, and we brought sweaters to work in. However, it was still toasty and pleasant - so we're optimistic for mid-winter work conditions!

Last time here, we had timidly peeled back a few corners of wallpaper to test how easily it would pull off and were encouraged to find that it seemed pretty easy. Even so, we anticipated some struggles when we really got into it. I think Becca had been thinking of this for three weeks, because it didn't take her long to start stripping! 

She took down a million little fixtures first (the clutter in this boat is something) and then we ended up removing most of the wallpaper, which was pretty easy! The only real tedious parts came around the headliner and hard to reach bits. 

Some things, however, proved much more challenging. I'm not too sad that I missed out on this project, but Becca worked very hard at removing a big mirror from the bathroom, which only came off in little pieces while firing miniature shards everywhere. Somehow, she managed to do this while keeping all her fingers and without need of a first aid kit, by using tape and plastic to contain the mess. Unfortunately, this is just one of several mirrors glued tightly to the wall, so it's a good thing we're not superstitious. It's like a veritable fun house in the two cabins! [Insert "I wonder what for..." joke here.] Next time though, we'll approach it more systematically and armed with more tape. Success is all about the right tools, after all. 

Meanwhile, I got back to those hatch openings from last time. I had been assuming we would have to rip out the perimeter wood trim, as it looked downright nasty. That would make for a much bigger project, as the headliner is attached to them, and they are perfectly fitted to the rough opening, corner radii and all. So, in the past three weeks, I had started wondering if the damage was only skin deep, and if sanding would do the trick. So I gave it a shot, and the results are very promising! 

While not perfect, the pieces improved dramatically from just a light sanding with my Dremel Multi Max. After this, we are inclined to come back and give these a better sanding job and refinishing, and keeping them in place. We have enough big projects on this boat, so anything that saves some time is welcome!

Next, I embarked on a key project regarding the seaworthiness of the boat. You see, the boat had just one newer piece of equipment that had been added recently: a Garmin chart plotter and fish finder unit, located at the flybridge. However, the transducer that came with it had never been installed. Lucky for us, we found the Garmin box, with the transducer still inside, in the aft cabin closet. Since the other (older) electronics were not working, the boat had no depth readings at either helm station... risky business if you ask me! 

I had taken the Garmin box home to review the installation instructions and make sure I had the right drill bits and other equipment. Upon inspecting it, I also decided to buy a better (stainless steel) mounting bracket for the transducer. The plastic one that came with it didn't inspire my trust. Check out the difference between the slick, streamlined Garmin transducer and the old unit I took off the boat!

So, it was time for drilling! At this point I was just mocking up the installation, so I can start running the cable through the transom and routing it to the helm. Later this winter, I'll clean the area well and install and seal everything properly. 

We removed a lot more old stuff. Below, I am removing the old Dart display unit, and holding it alongside one of three non-functional CO detectors that were on the boat. Two of them were not even connected, we found the wires capped with tape behind the units. It is kind of cathartic to remove this old stuff, even as we know it will be quite an investment (in both time and money) to replace it all. 

Some of these projects are fussy... When you're drilling through the hull, you really want to measure thrice, and it takes planning and coordination to feel confident you won't regret what you just did. Progress can feel slow... Noticing that I was feeling a little bogged down, Becca convinced me to join her in the interior demo efforts, which can be more immediately gratifying. 

Working together, we ended up making huge progress here! Some things came out surprisingly easily, such as the trim in the first video below. Similar pieces, especially in the aft cabin, were exponentially more difficult. Some pieces were just painfully difficult to access. On Wednesday, three days after the second video below, I got struck by a pain in the middle of my back that I've decided to attribute to this backbend-over-plywood-edge maneuver. I guess I'm not getting any younger!

I quickly felt much better about our overall accomplishments. Becca always helps... While I am prone to feeling like things are taking too much time and can get overwhelmed by complications, Becca always grounds me, reminds me that there is no deadline, and makes sure that we are having fun... Example below, when she had me step into the shower so I could make an appearance in one of her signature selfies. 

We have a lot of figuring out to do, as we are stripping out many finishes that will need to be replaced. We had been thinking that all these surfaces would be covered in new wallpaper, formica, vinyl, or maybe just sanded smooth and painted. But we were excited to find some decent looking wood in a few places, after sanding some small areas (picture below on left.) Especially after my success sanding around the hatches, we're excited about the prospect of uncovering some wood that we can leave exposed. Another fun discovery: after removing more mirrors from the forward cabin, we discovered some two more cutouts in the walls, which will provide additional and always-welcomed storage space.

As you may have gathered, we're certainly not making the boat look more finished, but the old has to come out before the new goes in! We find it funny to remember looking at many boat listings that looked similar to the images below, thinking that those boats needed too much work! Maybe they were actually further along!

Around 2pm on Sunday, with just a couple hours to go before we had to get on the road, we started picking up the mess and packing, to leave things organized enough that we can hit the ground running next time. We did it so efficiently that we found a little time to spare... And I decided that was as good a time as any to start removing the sanitation system. This will be a big project, but I knew it would feel like a great accomplishment to get it started. So, I put on my gloves and went to work on the aft head. The photos below give you a good idea of what I was dealing with, but also, it was heavy! Heavy enough that, to get it off the boat, we had to put our wrap-and-drop technique to work once again. We made it look pretty easy this time, and the time lapse makes it look even easier, but check out how happy, accomplished, and excited Becca looks! One toilet gone, one to go. 

Shortly after, we emerged from the storage facility for our 5-hour drive home. After a 12-hour workday on Saturday and about 7 hours on Sunday, we really hadn't seen much of the outside world. You lose track of time in there. So as we left, we were surprised to open the door to this: the sun about to set on the horizon, with a dusting of snow blowing around us. It was quite a beautiful sight - the perfect way to wrap up our weekend there and energize us for the drive home... One filled with boat conversations, some podcasts, and - yes - a little salsa music.