Less Boat Progress, More Home Progress…

The last month has been a bit slow on the boat projects…   Early April, I removed all of the canvas from the cockpit (bimini, dodger, bridge, side curtains, etc) and dropped them off at the North Sails loft for cleaning and treatment.  I was hoping to get it all back by the 20th so we would have it for the Coho Ho Ho Raftup.   Luckily the cleaning service got done in good time, and we were even able to get some patching done by the loft to fix where the genoa sheet winches rub the canvas when we have the sides on.  The canvas looks awesome!

I ordered a new propane tank pigtail to solve the leak we found during the survey but ran into a problem..   The original pigtail came attached to the Trident regulator/gauge as a set and has “permanent” thread locker.  I could not break it loose and in fact got to the point where I bent the brass tee fittings without loosening the threads one iota.  So I verified that I could remove the entire assembly and ordered a whole new regulator assembly.   Since our’s is 10 years old it’s sort of nice that we’ll have a whole new propane regulator and fittings.   It also came with the newer quick connect for the tank side which means I will no longer need tools to switch tanks.   The new regulator was exactly the same as the old one except it had a mounting flange screwed to the back.   I removed the mounting flange to find out that they used self-drilling sheet-metal screws, making the resulting threads larger than the mounting screws on the old regulator.   I eventually was able to reconnect everything using the new screws and it seems everything is good now.

In the meantime, with the help of our awesome CPA we got our taxes completed and filed before the April deadline for the first time in several years.  And we got a surprise refund.   We almost always owe more each year so this refund is a very welcome change.

I washed and completely cleaned both of our leased cars, the i3 pre-return inspection was completed, and the Z4 got’s it’s scheduled maintenance completed.  We returned both cars at the same time on Tuesday, April 11th.  We are going to miss them, but on to better things.  We still have two cars, both we own outright, but we currently have three drivers.   We’ve had a Mazda CX-9 since new in 2012 and we also have a Ford Ranger pickup that was my dads.  Sharing two cars with three drivers has been a bit logistically challenging but not horrible.  Last week I replaced all the brake rotors and pads on the Mazda.  The rear rotors had apparently warped and there was a strong vibration while braking.   The pads still had some of life left but were less than 50% of the thickness of the new ones.  Not too bad for 45,000 miles actually.

The Coho Raft-up was fun, with four boats rafted up in Blakely Harbor.   We had an awesome potluck in our cockpit, took some drone shots of the boats, played some Uno, Yahtzee, had great coffee, and great discussion.

Oh, and I turned 40 on Friday.