If it seems like most of what we do now is plumbing and wiring, well, that is correct.  😉

I added a new 12v plug yesterday for our portable freezer, but decided that I hated the little “splice in” connectors that they used to wire the existing plugs in the side of the cabinet… so I redid it.

Before: I hate those connectors that just clamp onto the existing wiring.

Re-wired it to get rid of the mess, added a new bus bar for the supply from the “DC outlets” breaker, and distribution to the appropriate places!

Better!

I took some photos of the raw water supply tubing we replaced the other day.  This is what feeds our diesel with cooling sea water.  I’m glad we went ahead and did this because there were cracks all down it and it was ready to fail. I’d rather do preliminary maintenance than emergency control later!

Not snakes
That’s not good.

With all new hoses to the motor, we were finally able to reinstall the sea strainer.  The motor is now ready to run!!!

done!

Most of what I did today was work on the potable water system.  I’ve already done a lot of work replacing hoses, adding cut off valves, and rerouting things…but Jason and I were looking at the awkward cross connect valves and decided they really weren’t necessary.  The 2 large valves on top of the cold water manifold only serve to be able to supply the hot water manifold from the cold supply while bypassing the heater.  I can only think of a few very special circumstances where that would be beneficial, but not worth the added complexity of having these 2 valves and their hoses everywhere… so I ripped them out!

Before
These are now garbage
After!
After with a little more cleaning!

One other thing I noticed while digging around was that there are 2 supplies to the forward head for both cold and hot potable water.  There’s absolutely no reason for this and by only have a single hot and cold supply up forward I can pull out at least 20′ of hose and clear up some space in the bilge.  I started pulling this out, but needed some tees from the hardware store to finish. Like I’ve been doing with most everything I’ve been adding zip tie hangers in locations that will bring the hoses and wires up off of the deck, so if water needs to drain, the wires won’t just be sitting in it.  I’m hoping it’ll keep the boat a lot cleaner.  Either way, I feel better having done it!

The paint is flaking at the bottom, but all the dirt and grime is cleaned off!
The hoses to all the way to the bilge under the hatch at the top of the photo.

We got back to the apartment to see a giant pile of boxes in front of the door!  The rest of our new lights came in, so I predict I’ll be doing some more wiring tomorrow!