Projects. Projects.

A few days back we began what many here refer to as 'simple projects'. Well, here's what we know after doing a few of these; they may be simple but that doesn't equate to quick. Our few 'simple projects' took us two plus days to complete.

Bilge Pump:

We needed to replace our bilge pump as it died on us while we were visiting Oregon. Our sweet neighbor lent us one because the local marine store was unexpectedly closed for almost two weeks. We felt fortunate that when the store reopened they had the parts we needed. Poncha and our sweet neighbor previously worked together to install the loaner pump so we thought installing the replacement pump would be a breeze. Oh no, nothing like that!

Here's Poncha starting the project.

Hours later...Poncha continues her work.

Here's a view into our cabin during the bilge pump replacement project. Projects aboard Jade have a way of making a mess. If you look towards the bottom of this pic you'll see Poncha is still hard at work almost five hours after starting this 'simple project'.

While Poncha was laid out of the floor of Jade's cabin working in a 2' x 3' x 3' space (AKA: not very comfortable resulting in some decent bruises), I started on my own project; organizing the lazerette (storage space on the stern). This, by the way, really was an easy project with tangible results in under two hours! 

Here's almost everything pulled out of the lazerette.

Here's everything well organized. Heck, we even managed to create enough room to store our extra 40 pound anchor!

We aborted the bilge pump replacement project on day one (after 5 hours of Poncha's hard work) when we realized what we needed was to install a check value to prevent the water that the bilge pump was removing from back flowing down the four foot long pipe to the outside. Without this valve the pump would continuously run and ultimately it would burn out the pump motor and we would be back to square one.

The next day we went to the local marine store to seek out a check valve. This time the marine store did not have what we needed, therefore, we went to the local hardware store. This store had a check valves however we weren't certain we bought the right valve. We pedaled our bikes back to Jade only to learn the valve we bought was too small and not the exact one we needed. We laughed and said out loud "Of course it isn't the right one". Then we jumped on bus for the 10 mile ride to Guaymas to seek out the part at Home Depot. Arriving, we were hopeful yet wary since this Home Depot isn't like the ones in the states. The selection is minimal, at least on most everything we need. 

Can you guess from the pic that we left without the part we needed? 

Back to the local hardware store we went...not exactly laughing all the way but somewhat. We managed to purchase a larger check valve and the connectors to make it fit our needs. Back aboard Jade we installed the much needed check valve. Oh, it did take several attempts, however success was ours and we were more than thrilled!

Here's the check valve and a view of it in the engine room.

At the end of the day our bilge pump and check valve were working great! 

We also marked our chain by painting various colors every 25 feet to allow us to gauge how much chain we let out when we anchor. This entailed pulling out all 275 feet of chain, laying it out on the dock for two days while the paint dried. This one really was an easy project.

  

Now with these projects done we want to set sail and anchor out for a few days!