Head Tales and a Visitor from the West

9/6/11 Tuesday     Today was the day we had planned on leaving Northpoint Marina and heading down to Chicago. So much for plans! Mother Nature had other ideas. The winds are out of the NE at 25 knots with higher gusts and no let up in sight. Of course high winds mean high waves. 10' plus. Not the conditions we want to be out in. Normally the prevailing winds on the lake are from the Southwest which makes the Wisconsin and Illinois side of the lake a bit calmer. Guess I missed the change in normal!

Waves crashing against breakwater at Northpoint Marina.

The other day before the wind picked up I performed a crappy job on Tourist. For a little while now the master head would run periodically. Tourist has Vaccuflush heads and it was a vacuum leak that was causing it to turn on & off at random. I had previously replaced one set of duck valves (the easiest set) but that still didn't remedy the problem. Obviously an all out assault was required. First order of business...disconnect the hoses that run from the bowl to the pump and from the pump to the holding tank. I'm thinking that I should have a Hazmat suit for this. Oh well. Get the transom shower ready!

I flushed the system out with fresh water before shutting off the power and diving into the bilge to disconnect the hoses. I cannot tell you the shear terror of pulling a hose off that you know could be full of crap. First hose came off with no problem. The second hose was like it was sealed on and required some gentle persuasion to get it loose. Of course my gentle persuasion caused it to come off with a big pop from the now released vacuum pressure. It was loud and I was louder! Even Pam came to see if I was OK. Fortunately there was only the noise and a foul odor escaping from the hoses. Next step was to remove the assembly from it's mounting and get it outside where I could work on it without spilling any of the contents. I set up shop in the cockpit on top of an old towel and started to disassemble the pump to install a new bellows and the remaining duck valves.

Head repair.

I'm happy to report that the operation was successful with no spilled contents and the unit returned to it's proper location and working like it should.

On Sunday we had visitors. Oscar persuaded his parents to drive him over so he could see his GramPam.

Oscar arrives with his chauffeurs.

Now that he's crawling and pulling himself up we were a bit nervous about how he would do on the boat. No problem! He moved around and checked things out like he had been born on a boat.

Hey Gramma. Let me help!

Look what I can do!
The crew spent the night with no one falling out of bed in spite of the wind picking up while we were sleeping. After a leisurely morning it was time to say goodbye. Matt & Mandy had to go back to work and Franklin had to go back to his harem at the baby sitters. Tourist survived Oscar with only a sliding glass door full of finger prints to show he was here.

Hey Grampa. Got any crackers?

Just looked at the forecast for the next few days. Temps in the 70's good. Sunny skies. Good. Strong winds from the NE. Bad. High waves. Double bad! We may be here for awhile.

Too windy to fly!