Well… we ran into another setback *and* found something that smells worse than the sewage system replacement. :/

It all started when we test fit the new condensing units for the fridge and freezer in the aft lazarette.  Looks like they’ll fit great!

So now that we have a vague plan of attack for the outside units, it was time to move inside and install the evaporators in the fridge and freezer tubs. Sounds pretty easy.  The previous owner added layers of foam covered in opaque plastic sheeting to add more insulation to the factory tub and make it more efficient.  We kind of thought that he had done something, but hadn’t really given it much thought until today.  I (as usual) started poking around on some of the sealant between the panels and slowly came to the horrifying realization that the sealant had failed pretty much everywhere. That means that when something spills inside the fridge or water forms it’s all going to drain down into the foam.  The fridge already smelled a little funky so I decided to pull up a corner and check it out.

ok here goes the investigation….

Once I peeled up a few corners it was pretty obvious that water *had* gotten in because I cracked open a can of the most foul stench of mold and rotten food. Awesome.

From here we have two options:  replace the sealant in our time capsule and never speak of it again… or rip it out and redo it and fix it right.  I think by now you all can guess which option we chose.

Time for my favorite thing: destruction and mayhem.

Did I mention the smell? Because this smells like rotten food and liquid mold.  I don’t know if the sewage smell really was worse or if we were just more prepared for it. Either way… the boat now reeks…

I had to send Jason to ace hardware to get gigantic garden trash bags so we could get rid of all of this shit.  I tried the kitchen bags… that was not going to cut it at all! I finally got all of the plastic and thick foam sheets removed. There was a single layer of 1″ on the sides and 2 layers on the bottom and water had worked it’s way between all of the layers, so everything was just damp and smelly.

I have no idea why the floor of the tub is stained black.  Surprisingly enough, it’s NOT mold, but it also won’t clean off.  In addition to the hard foam, they also used some surprisingly tenacious tape to glue reflectix bubble insulation underneath the foam.  This was super hard to pull off and most of it just ripped.  The back edge of the compartment is actually way deeper than it looks in photos.  I can’t get my hand all the way even if I’m halfway inside the door.

While at the hardware store Jason found me Goo Gone in a spray bottle! I had no idea that was a thing so I sprayed the entire thing with it in the hopes that the stuck on glue would just melt off.  No such luck.  I quickly realized that I needed to work smarter and got the power tools out.  Slowly but surely I got most of the glue removed from the front half of the tub.

So…. there’s still a back half that has glue and insulation bits all over it? What to do with that? I had one of those “I wonder if I could fit…” moments and then crawled my way INTO the freezer tub.  On one hand, it was gross and hard to work in, but on the other hand I could actually reach everything I needed to and got the rest of the glue off so it was worth it.

After the tub was cleaned up well enough, Jason was inspecting my handiwork and realized that the previous owner (curse his name!) had filled the drain sump in the far corner with some sort of hard epoxy substance. Awesome. Now we have to either chip that all out with a chisel, design a new type of drain, or just fill it and sponge the water out when we need to. No further progress on that front since it’s now 82 degrees inside the boat with the AC running and I’m sitting inside a cabinet.

We made a lot of progress today, unfortunately it was for a project that shouldn’t have needed to happen.  We still don’t know what we’re going to end up doing with it, but we may need a few days to ponder it!