Progress!

Hallelujah, the tank came on Monday as promised!  We were kind of shocked.  Finding and ordering it was quite the ordeal.  Thank you Amazon!  Free two day shipping on this huge box must have cost Jeff Bezos a bundle.🤑

On Tuesday, we were able to hoist the new plastic fuel tank onto the boat using our davit system. Davits are small cranes on the back of a boat.  In our case, they will be used to suspend and lower our dinghy and its motor. We were glad that all of our measuring and searching on the internet paid off, it fits just the way we imagined.

The fuel tank will be supported in a wood structure along with stringers that will hold the new deck up.  Joe cut the new deck to size and coated one side with West System epoxy. This new cockpit floor will sit on the cut edges in the cockpit of the boat that have also have been smoothed over with West System.  We will seal the joint with 3M 4200 and hold it down with screws. It will be possible, in the future, to remove the new floor easier than it was this time. The final step to the deck floor will be applying The KiwiGrip non-skid surface.  This product had to be ordered from West Marine and will come Thursday.

On Wednesday, we put another coat of West System epoxy and fabric on the new deck and started to cut templates for the new wood bulkheads and frames for the tank. The new tank is flat on the bottom with 7″ bevels on each side so Joe will have to create a “cradle” to support the tank and keep the weight of the fuel from deforming the bottom and sides.

Thursday was spent buying the marine lumber necessary to build the cradle and starting the construction of it.  Now the Tahoe is a lumber wagon!

We changed a few hoses coming off the wastewater tank as one looked split and as long as we had access, we replaced the one to the fill tube as well.  Yes, the tank was empty and rinsed!!!

The other noteworthy progress is after discussions with Dometic/SeaLand, the distributor of the toilet and holding tank system, and oodles of evening hours on the Internet, we have decided to leave the current  wastewater tank in place.  We believe the entire VacuFlush system was added later to the boat replacing the original system and tank.  This is a relief.  We really couldn’t find a stock tank to fit and a custom one could take weeks!  The bonus is we also now understand our apparently super cool head system.

Friday we are completing the epoxy on the new deck and adding an access hatch for the fuel lines and tank sender.   We hope to complete the cradle construction today as well..  We have another list separate from the fuel tank repair of tasks to complete before the boat can go in which we are plugging away on as well.

Even though we have this unexpected repair and delay, we are content here.  It does remind us of being in Bayfield.  Joe is looking at Real Estate.  😯   We love that everyone waves at you whether you are walking or in your car.  Everyone wants to help!  A gentlemen I met on a walk offered the use of his shed and tools.  He and his wife are leaving for Vero Beach on their boat in the fall.  We may cross paths with them!  The marina manager Chris stops by on a regular basis to BS and see how we are doing and whether we need anything.   As we’ve stated before, we would not be as far as we are without Tom the broker!  It is hard work but we are saving about $9,000.  This was the bid the previous owner got to replace the tank when the rust was spotted by our surveyor.  The boat price was reduced!

We keep looking at the weather and have decided it’s not the worse thing to have stayed here a bit.  There have only been a few days so far where moving the boat would have been good.  Starting tomorrow it looks like 60 degree days will be the norm.   We do like seeing sports cars, motorcycles, kids on bikes, shorts on the UPS guy, lawn mowing and everything else springing to life.