Yes, dear Reader, I know that you are waiting anxiously for photos of white sandy beaches and gin clear water; however, hurricane season is still upon us and we still have things to do before we will be completely ready for departure. Therefore, please accept my apologies for yet another photo of boat components. Hopefully, soon, your patience will be rewarded.

This week has been all about management of fluids. Evenings have been dedicated to the following projects:

1) Rebuilding our manual fresh water foot pump in the galley: The service kit arrived this week and with four hands required for re-assembly, Sheryl and I put the pump back together with all new diaphragms, valves, and o-rings. The pump works and does not leak. I guess we can chalk that one up in the 'win' column.

2) Replacing the pressure water three-way valve: This valve allows us to switch between port and starboard water tanks. Just as we were getting ready to depart for Cape Lookout, this valve started leaking whenever we switched to the port tank. For our vacation, we simply used the manual pumps to draw from the port and pressure pump to draw from starboard. Now that we had the manual system back in order, we decided that it was time to replace this valve. Upon initial installation, one connection leaked slightly, but we re-assembled the fitting and the leak appears to have stopped. Make that two in the 'win' column.

3) Addressing the fuel system: Our mechanic, Roger, had time in his schedule this week to rebuild our fuel system. After my debacle earlier this summer (attempting to install a bypass system) it didn't take much convincing on his part to change our strategy to 'keep it simple.' Instead of making a more complicated bypass system, we simply had him replace all fuel hoses and fittings, move the shutoff valve to a more convenient spot (closer to the fuel filter), move the fuel pump to a more efficient location, and add in a vacuum gauge for monitoring the state of the filter. In Roger's experience, a small engine like ours sips such a small amount of fuel that we should be able to monitor the gauge and keep one step ahead of any potential clogged filter situations. Check one more box on our 'to have done' list.

Other items which arrived in boxes this week have set the stage for weekend boat projects. We purchased a Shortwave/SSB/Weather Fax Receiver (made by Si-Tex) which we hope will add to our weather information gathering capabilities. We also purchased an inverter in order to run the few items we still have left which require AC power (rather than operating directly off of the 12V DC batteries). Both of those items require installation effort. Hopefully, this weekend will be conducive to such projects.

Stay tuned, dear Reader, as the list of projects gets shorter and the anticipation of departure grows to a crescendo.