Remember that wonderful Lavac head we installed? It developed a backwash and wasn't clearing the bowl, and the vacuum was holding for minutes at a time rather than the expected 30 seconds. Turns out the square plastic mount for the intake flapper valve in the pump had fractured and the whole valve assembly had come loose in the body of the pump. When it happened to line up with the opening, the head worked. Any other time, not. Derek diagnosed the problem (with only a little cursing and dire threats to get a new head), took apart the pump and had the problem figured out in about 25 minutes. Scott at St. Brendan's Isle, the US distributor for the Lavac, is sending us a new flapper valve assembly. Pics follow. Thing is, even it it were just a bucket, a marine head is something without which one simply cannot do (oh, dear).

We caught a big break with the weather today and made the most of it to work in the boat without worrying about being too hot... and more interestingly, Derek totally got the air conditioning working, thanks to a useful suggestion from Ken (hi Ken, again!), who told him to run the dock water hose into the intake and see whether the cooling water was getting through the A/C system that way. Turns out there was a hose just before the pump with a gash in it. Fixed now and works well!

The fridge is lovely... oooh, it's just so lovely. Cool beverages today while we worked. I put the final little pocket of foam insulation into it, and Grant and I chose a nice closed-cell gasket to seal it, which I put on yesterday... but everything else was done by Derek and we are so proud of him!

The floor reappeared late today after an absence of months; Derek measured the aft starboard (guest) berth, I purchased plastic storage bins of size to allow a stack two high and four deep, with six more on the big side shelf in there. We didn't even need all the bins, the floor is clear, and the berth still has lots of room! We had to have the floor and the salon surfaces clear so that I can strip paint off and Derek can build the stateroom configuration out of what was the "other" configuration. It's what we need for comfort in the tropics and space for long-term liveaboard cruising, and it's one of the two designs that were built in the original Snowgoose (just not the design this particular wonderful hull started out with. We hope she loves her new features!). Derek doesn't think this will take long; he's already put the first piece in, traced the gap it needed to fill, and cut it exactly to fit. If they are all this good, this is going to be wonderful, and it may even go as quickly as he thinks!