Hoses and fridges and blowers oh my

So, as it turns out this trip down the Erie Canal is turning out to be a bit of a shakedown cruise for us as we work out bugs on the boat.

Two days ago, I noticed there was a bit of water in the bilge and a bit of water collecting on the floorboards around the galley. It was clean, I figured it was a bit of rainwater. Then that night I heard the sound of water running after washing dinner dishes and water collecting again around the galley sole.

This time we opened up the bilge cover and there was water nearly up to the floorboards. We tore everything out of the cupboard under the galley sink and discovered that the drain hose (one of the few not replaced this summer) was leaking water rather quickly. We turned on the bilge pump and disconnected the hose. Now it's matter of replacing that. At least we hope that's all it is.

The hose leading from the head to the macerator unit also appears to be leaking slightly. Enough said.

On top of that, our blower on our engine seems to be giving up the ghost.

Our refrigerator unit is not staying cold enough. It's an Adler Barber unit. It may just need a bit of freon but we are looking at other refrigerator units for the boat - something we didn't think we'd need to replace - we think the Frigoboat air cooled unit looks like a good option. But pricey - about $2000 when all is said and done and that's going to take a big bite out of our budget.

Yesterday was otherwise a great day - got lots of provisions at Tops Supermarket in Baldwinsville - a one-mile hike for Scott, Aidan and I and then a nice lady, Odette, gave us a ride back.

We're at Winter Harbour Marina and they have loaner cars (yay) so I ran up and did three loads of laundry while the kids and Scott tidied the boat. Then we all showered.

It's quite pretty here on the shores of Oneida Lake. We're about 10 miles from Syracuse, NY. This is a border between the western and eastern portions of the Erie Canal. Today or tomorrow (depending on boat repairs) we're heading to Rome, at Lock 21 which sounds quite nice, with lots to see. We're getting a bit squirrly from sitting on the boat day after day and need to stretch our legs.

We'll stock up on some spare parts here (impressive store here) and figure that out.

L