Found money

If only I had found a lot more of it. But I did find some extra money I forgot I had bookmarked, so I went ahead and ordered up a few more things that will hopefully all be here before this weekend, as I'm hopeful to get up for at least Saturday to get more of the projects done. First and foremost, is this newfangled battery box. The shipping was updated and it should be here tomorrow, which I'm anxious for. I think that only boat owners find themselves getting that excited over what must seem pretty mundane to others. A big square plastic box? Looks pretty plain. I've settled on the installation layout though. Starting with the empty engine bay, I'll cut off the existing engine mounting studs protruding up from the rails. I may leave just enough that I can countersink some holes in a piece of plywood to assist in holding fast but no so high that they come through it. I'll add a supporting block under the plywood in the cavity for center support, and then use some thickened epoxy to seal the plywood in place. It'll hold a lot better than if I tried to simply screw the plywood down. From there, I'll screw some wooden lengths onto the battery box so that when the box is placed on the plywood, I can then screw those down into the plywood. This will hold it in place, but still allow me to unscrew and slide the box out later on down the road if I need to. If that time comes, I'll make some support system to slide the box out and down without trying to lift a 250 lbs battery tray, but for now, it'll work. I think I'll have to put two batteries in, get the box up and in place started, then slide the other two batteries in with something wedged under the box and then push it back into place. That's how it'll work in my head. We'll see about in practice.

The other Fortress I ordered for my dad has arrived, and I still have the new flooring roll to take up with me. That'll be trickier, since it really does need to sit out flat in a decent temperature to help flatten it. I have 5 dogs and a football team of cats, so it won't be ideal to do that in the house. I thought about laying the seats down flat in the GL and unrolling it, with weights on it and the heat cranked for the drive, but then I remembered I'm taking the outboard. So unless I lay it down, and then find a lot of plywood to place over it, I may just have to figure that out as it comes. At the very least, take it to the boat and when the weather gets warm, roll it out on the dock in the sun and then install it. Hard to have a project that I can't get to.

Other goodies arriving though, are a new impeller for the outboard, which may find it's way on this weekend as well. It should be fairly easy to drop the lower unit while the boat is mounted to the kicker bracket on the hard. But the existing one does seem to still be working ok, so it might just go in the spares drawer for later. Some flush mounted ring pulls for the bilge boards after the new floor is down, and some rings to mount the new (as yet to arrive) solar panel, and some fittings for the adjustable poles. I also ordered a roller - again for the floor - and 3M Spray adhesive, as I've read plenty of reviews that the peel-off adhesive backing of the floor is marginal at best, and inadequate at worst. I should also be seeing a screen protector for this Galaxy Tab A that will be used as a plotter, though I still need to order a mount for it. Then again, I need to finish up sealing and fairing and painting the bulkhead that it's going to mount to first, anyway. That stuff has yet to be ordered, as it's still just a hair too cold. I did though, order a plug for the water tank. Someone's infinite wisdom, installed hose fitting in the anchor locker to fill the fresh water tank. Aside from being a really, really stupid place for that, it also doesn't have any closure - either it was lost, or who knows what. I have no idea how much water is actually in the tank - there's no gauge, you can't get to it as it's permanently mounted under the v-berth, and has no access ports. I do have a pump that feeds the sink, but frankly, I don't use the water tank on the boat at all. And as there's no real seal around the anchor locker, there's also no telling how much rain water has found it's way down into the locker, and then to the tank - nor what happens when that gets full? Is that water just overflowing into the bilge? I do have water there from time to time, but is it that? is it just leaky toe-rails? Who knows. But I'll eliminate one potential place by plugging the hole, and then running the sink faucet and out the discharge thru-hull for a bit, to draw down whatever is in the water tank.

Still no word from the marina on if it's a definite open, or if we're going to be stuck on hold this year. I did see them working with the crane on the webcam this morning - and then the camera went out. Maybe they were using the crane to do something with the camera? I'd like to think that they were readying docks or something, but who knows.

On a side note - Whitestone Dome Glass screen protectors - I can't say enough about these things, regardless of the cost. It might seem more complicated than the old peel and stick kind, but go ahead and YouTube some videos. And I'll say that the phones I've had it on - including the one I put on today for my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra - perfection.