Taking the Minnow out of Mothballs

Sailing with Dummies (Seattle to The Dalles Edition)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
by Mike

The Minnow sat wintering for eight months in the same parking spot. In Port Everett Marina, just north of Seattle. Shortly after arrival here, Josh and Melinda did a superb job removing perishables and gave her a thorough cleaning, inside and out. Then she sat, unoccupied. For eight months.

Friday I headed to Seattle to begin southward with the Minnow. When I got to the dock, I was pleasantly surprised to see a clean boat. The dock lines were all reasonably tight, and everything looked to be in good shape. The worst I could see was where moss, algae, mildew, and stuff like that had found some homes here and there.

There were several things to do to get the Minnow ready to go. I started with some simple things … checked the bilge pump counters, looked for leaks, got the shore power going, defrosted the freezer, turned on the fresh water pumps. Bob visited Melinda, and the Minnow, in January and reported that the fresh water pumps didn’t work. They still didn’t work. I decided to tackle the fresh water system in the morning.

Saturday morning I woke up cold. It was 59 degrees in the living room (I slept in the living room since it was about 10 degrees warmer than the bedrooms) and 41 outside. Heck with trying to plumb in frigid conditions – I got in the car, set the temperature to “oven” and tried to find a Walmart or a bookstore. After close to an hour, I found a Borders. It didn’t open until 10:00a. It was only 7:45, but I was warm!

It was late morning when I returned to the Minnow with groceries and a book. I proceeded to attack the fresh water system. By early evening both left and right water systems were working.

I’d enjoyed a plumbing festival that included several thrilling trips to marine suppliers and resulted in plenty of rewarding nicks and cuts on my hands. I had replaced both water pumps, replaced fuses, reset breakers, drained water, cleaned up after spraying leaks, removed and temporarily capped both showers and probably some other things. As it turns out, it was an unusually cold winter in Washington. Thus, the freeze damage.

Sunday morning was almost as cold and Saturday. It featured the discovery of more water leaks, more parts needed, more “isometric plumbing” and late in the day, the detection of a locked up transmission shifter. By Sunday evening I was getting eager to leave and get out on the water. This boat fixing is for the birds. Monday morning the Minnow will go to sea!

Daily Cuisine: In preparation for sailing I decided to “carb up.” That’s just an excuse to eat a lot, which I did. Pizza. Melinda took me to Lombardi’s and let me feed her for her taxi services.