WINTERLUDE 2018

It's been about a month or more since I last visited BIANKA. The weather has been cold and the winds blowing off Long Island Sound make it feel colder. But, since the fourth Nor' Easter is about to arrive tomorrow I figured I should make the trip. I needed to make some measurements and check on space availability for some various projects I have planned once the weather warms up.
I arrived at the boatyard a few minutes before Spring or the Vernal Equinox happened. Though it sure still felt like winter. I did the usual checkout of the deck and charged up the batteries. I then moved the piles of cushions, boxes of parts and tools so I could check the space where I planned to relocate the new Jabsco Macerator Pump. It looked very doable and should be a pretty easy job:

Which was a relief. However. the location where I planed to install a new Standard Horizon 2200 VHF radio was not going to go as smoothly.  Behind the bulkhead where I wanted to install the unit was hose and fitting for BIANKA's anchor wash down outlet.

It may require that move the outlet. But, perhaps not I'll know better once I get the unit and see how it fits. But, at least I'll be prepared to do the work.

Not much else to do in the cold temperatures on board once the batteries were topped up except to check the bilge. There was some water there. Not surprising since the boat has weather three Nor' asters and some heavy rains since I last visited. I took out the Micro Wet/Dry Shop Vac and sucked the water out of BIANKA's deep bilge. The small shop vac makes the job so much easier, faster and cleaner. 

   I empty the Shop Vac into a five gallon bucket . One that I had labeled to show one gallon for deck washing solutions.  It showed I had only about a gallon in the bilge.

Having accomplished all I had planned to do. I buttoned the boat up disconnected the power cord and went home to await the storm. Hopefully warmer Spring temperatures will soon be on the way.

DOWNSIZING SUCKS!: Shop Vac MICRO vacuum

Tweet

I've carried a Sears Wet/Dry 2-1/2 gallon vacuum on board for a few years. It comes in very handy for various cleaning jobs on board. At the time it was the smallest 120 volt vacuum I could find. Having the Honda 2000 generator on board makes it easy to use even at anchor or on the mooring. Though I primarily bought it to suck water out of the bilge. The bilge on BIANKA is rather deep and I was getting tired of spending so much time on my knees with the hand pump and sponge when it needed to be cleaned or drained. The wet/dry vac did the job a lot faster and better. Recently I saw that Shop Vac had come out with an even smaller wet/dry vac a one gallon unit called the Shop-Vac Micro Wet/Dry Vac. On a 30 foot sail boat downsizing to smaller things is always a good idea. So I bought one and tested to see if it would work for what I needed it for. First lets see what it comes with:



So far so good. You can see how it compares in size the the 2-1/2 gallon vacuum I already had on board even while it was still in the box:

Here it is in a side by side comparison:

Unlike the larger vac which had a dry filter that was wrapped around the foam filter the  Shop-Vac Micro Wet/Dry Vac has a separate filter bag that slides into the intake for the vacuum:

This filter bag wraps around the motor in the lower case:

It only comes with one bag so if you plan to do a lot of heavy duty dry cleaning you will need to order more  Micro Filter Bags so you have them on hand. But, since I primarily use the wet/dry vac for emptying the deep bilge on BIANKA of water I needed to see how well it would do that job. So I did a quick initial test which you can see here:



It works just as well as the larger wet dry vac it is replacing for removing water from the bilge. The cons are since it only has a one gallon capacity I might have to empty it more often depending on how much water is in the bilge. It also seems to sometimes spray a little water out the exhaust as it nears capacity. But, that is easily wiped up. Also unlike larger vacuums the output port does not allow you to use it as a blower but, I never did use the larger vacuum for this either. All in all I am pleased to downsize to this smaller vac which takes up a lot less space than the one it is replacing and will still allow me to do the clean up jobs I need it to do. So it gets the Captain Mike seal of approval.
Tweet



.