Days Events:

Mother Nature decided we should stay in Port Huron another night! There is a Small Craft Advisory for southern L.Huron, as well as other areas, due to severe TSM and winds gusting to 26mph with waves 1-3'; a change from yesterdays forecast. So being water wussies, we made the prudent decision, even though Lexington is only 22 miles north.

Maintenance Issues:

The wx gave me the opportunity to change the vacuflush bellows on our head, believing it had lost its seal and therefore the vacuum wasn't being retained; another first for me. [see photo showing the pump and vacuum tank, with the bellows inside the black housing in the center] Not as 'messy' as changing the duckbill valves.

No real difficulty doing it, but the pump is still being triggered too often albeit it is better. Using my stethoscope [put the auditory bell in a disposable glove!] along the hoses, etc, the loudest bubbling/hissing seems to be from the outgoing or downstream side of the pump housing; it's possible there is 'something' stuck and preventing the duckbill closing completely; or the valve is just wearing after a year of use; some authors recommend changing them yearly regardless. I just happen to have a set onboard, but will wait a few days before deciding, since everything seems to be working better now [the pump isn't triggering as often to generate more vacuum] and we can resume using it 'normally'.

Staying here also enabled the Admiral to make a tasty banana loaf; I do like anything with bananas, especially her loaf.

Photos:

Marg took one of the condos across the river last night; then one of a group of Canada Geese trooping by. We took a shot of our drinks at the Vintage Tavern as well - weird looking crooked martini glass.

There's one of the forward VacuFlush system: it is under our shower/toilet area and accessed from the hallway.

So, FYI [for those so interested]: the vacuum generating pump is the black cylinder attached to the bellows housing in the middle - the pump drives the bellows which creates a vacuum in the white fiberglass tank to the right and below the pump; the vacuum pulls the waste into the tank and through a set of duckbill valves [upstream of the bellows, towards the tank] into the bellows housing; from there, the bellows simultaneously generated a high pressure [opposite side to the vacuum] and pushes the waste out downstream after the bellows and into the Holding Tank - the valves prevent backflow of waste and loss of the vacuum.

From Desk of Admiral:

An unexpected down day. There are always things that need doing, but what I get done is dependent upon what I'm in the mood to do. So my mood said bake banana bread. Besides, Rob was blocking the hallway to our room so using up some bananas and not getting dressed until noon seemed like a good idea. Also got some stuff cooking in the slow cooker.

The weather has been unpleasant today, until this evening, which is warm and lovely. Heavy rain, lots of wind and chilly. The severe weather fortunately stayed south of us. There was some damaging hail that we're really happy we didn't get.

Although I had supper cooking it was time to "get off the boat!" so we went to The Vintage Tavern for dinner. Good food and nice ambience. And the marina staff took us there in a golf cart! Apparently Uber is not really available here even though it says it is.

That's about it for today

Planning:

Wx forecast is better tomorrow so should be able to travel to Lexington, 22 miles north.

Comments:

Deedee  •  19 Jun, 2021 - Looks like such a nice area!

Ernie R  •  19 Jun, 2021 - All martini glasses tend to look like that after a while! Nice thing about a boat is you can always find something to do!