My God, what a long, miserable winter. But it’s over. Well, mostly. It is going to approach freezing overnight for a night or two later this week. For all intents, though, it does appear to be done. And not a moment too soon.

Lulled into some carelessness by the recent mild winters, I was planning on spending several nights every week aboard, and figured with a little heater running I didn’t need to winterize the fresh water system. Bzzzz… Wrong answer. It got cold enough to not only freeze the water; but bust the water pump.

This weekend, finally, I replaced the electric pump. I also installed a backup manual foot pump and faucet. A new inline filter is in place leading to the pressure galley faucet (I wanted the filtered water to go everywhere; but the plumbing system was turning into a spaghetti like nightmare, so I simplified it). It all works very well. In fact, the foot pump is so effective I sort of regret keeping the pressurized system. Ah, well. It’s in now. Removing it might simplify the water system; but it would do nothing to simplify my life, so it stays.

Unfortunately, just when I was testing all the systems I discovered that the Head sink faucet (an old, brittle, plastic thing) had cracked as well. I guess I’ll replace that at some point, though the head sink doesn’t get a tremendous amount of use.

This weekend also saw the recommissioning of the engine. Truly, it is much easier to restore it to service than it is to winterize it. Still, it is a relief to see it running.

The sails come back from the sail loft next week, all fixed and clean. At that point, while many projects remain (as always), I can go sailing.

I. Just. Can’t. Wait.