I took the day off yesterday to deal with my new trailer.... Last year I had my boat trailer get a crack in one of the crossbars and I took it to my mechanic to tack together, he said he could fix it and it'd maybe run 1500, which I figured beats a new trailer at 7 grand. Well, he sold me a bill of goods and it cost much higher, to where I'd definitely picked up a new trailer instead of a 1 or 2 year fix. Little things are now starting to happen with the old trailer so it's time to pick up a shiny new aluminum trailer that should last several years with little trouble...
So yesterday was the swap out, lots of sun, a little sweat and such, then it was time to take the old trailer home to pound out the rust and give it a coat of primer so I can sell it as it's not in bad shape at all, especially for a lighter boat. Well, getting it home wasn't a piece of cake as we live in a jungle with an 8 foot wide access road and it's a 9 foot wide trailer. To top it off, all of the water lines here are surface lines, and ours sticks out close to the access road... close enough to be eaten by oversized trailers towed by idiots... so yesterday afternoon was spent making several trips to the local Ace Hardware - I can't get Connie Stevens and Suzanne Sommers out of my head now... "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man" - to try to get supplies. I'm attempting to fix the water lines in the rainy jungle and gettting all muddy and such and in the end realize I'm gonna need a compression fitting, by then it's dark and getting towards Ace's closing time so it's time call Pat and tell her I'm an idiot and broke the water line and that she should plan for no water 'til sometime today...
Ok, we're half way prepared for "no water" situations as our lines used to break every time the fruit fell (we've since replaced most of the PVC pipe with driscol pipe, which is much stronger, yesterday's boo-boo involved galvanized pipe though). We always keep a five gallon container full of water to be used for a flush or two if needed, along with several cases of bottled water. To clean up it's a quick "bath" to knock off the mud with Diaperene wash cloths, which we keep just for such emergencies, and done for the evening. Pat had arranged for her morning shower at a friend's place so she wasn't overly bothered by the turn of events.
I just finished getting the compression fitting in place, and am waiting for some PVC cement to set on some PVC I did use, then will turn on the water at the street and hope it all holds. I NEED A SHOWER!!! I STINK!!! We'll probabaly break down and bring in someone who can change out and reroute the old galvanized pipe with driscol or something similar and permanently (at least 'til the wild boars figure out there's water in that black pipe - our uphill neighbors have pig attacks on their water lines every few years) solve the water problems.
I have a night dive tonight, so I'm hoping this fix does the job and I don't have to spend my whole day dealing with this.
The picture above is of an Undulated Moray (Gymnothorax undulatus) hunting at night. We see these guys a lot on the manta dive when we tour the reef at the end.
Later,
Steve
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