The Dynamic Duo

Amy has suggested that we are like a pair of super-heroes down here in Hilton Head. Captain Gladiator and Fussy Muffy. At odd moments, she'll come up with pieces of back story and character development for our alter egos. I don't know about our super-hero status, but we've been very productive today. I'll let Muffy go first with her version of the day's events which she wrote earlier while I was still down in one of the lockers cleaning. I've just finished washing the dishes after a spaghetti dinner which Muffy cooked. Right now she's on deck oiling the teak. Our biggest accomplishment of the day was getting the engine starter working again, even though it wasn't what we set out to do. It was just a happy byproduct of a day of cleaning and organizing.

Muffy's version: We had a really nice morning at the beach, and I rented a bike, which will improve my quality of life immensely (in another blog post, I'll talk about the 1/4 mile to the bathrooms, or the 1/2 mile to the showers). We came back to the boat mid-morning and got to work.

Scott opened up the seats in the cockpit and lowered himself into a smelly pit (the rear of one hull, I think). For a while, he handed me wet stinky things that had been ripening down there for a decade or so. I started a pile of these things, some of which will supposedly be useful on the boat. There was even a snow shovel in there that I snagged and put in my car. Scott used a pumpy thing to get the water out of the compartment, and then he drained some really nasty water out of an ancient water heater. Once he did that, he started cleaning out the compartment more and said he found some grounded thingy. He seemed excited about this. I cleaned out the sun shower, and accidentally dropped a (not critical) part of it overboard. I rinsed off a bunch of other things and put them out on the foredeck to dry. I learned the term "foredeck." Now I'm going to make us some spaghetti with meat sauce.

Cap'n Scott here again. That's pretty much an accurate recounting of the cleaning of the aft port hull locker. It's a large locker which in newer Geminis is a berth. The locker space isn't used very efficiently in this boat. It contains the batteries, holding tank, water heater and a bunch of wires, plumbing and sewage lines. It's a deep locker and on top of those things, which don't take up much room, was a bunch of crap which had been tossed in the locker. Rope lines, water hoses, life preservers and a lot of junk, including a snow shovel which will be useful to Muffy in NYC, but not so much on the boat in Hilton Head.

After removing all the junk, there was a layer of filth and scum in the locker. Some of it was sewage which had spilt over the years. (We're slowly ridding the boat of offensive odors.) We added to the scum when we drained the full hot water heater. In the very rear of the hull is another deeper area. That area was full of fairly clean water. We pumped out something like ten gallons of water from there. The water drained, I found what is likely an electrical ground for the boat. I'd been searching for this for awhile. I was concerned that there was none. The bad news is that I think that the water leaked in through the ground plate bolts and I'll have to seal the leak somehow.

I also found a cord and plug connected to the battery charger. I hadn't noticed it among all the other junk in the locker. I have a Black and Decker battery charger, but it's not marine grade like this one. If it works I'll have two chargers aboard! You know I'm a fiend for backups. I also found a terminal wire disconnected from a battery. This turned out to be one of the starter wires. I must have neglected to connect it after cleaning the terminals one day. Now that I have a clean and organized locker, I doubt that it will get lost again.

Having a partner in crime today has made me a lot more productive. Even though Muffy isn't an expert boater and sometimes calls stuff thingys, instead of by their proper names, she's made me a lot more productive. Just little things like having someone to hand stuff to while in the locker takes away a lot of the chore of having to get into and out of that cramped space.

And she's quite pleasant company to boot.