Me? Well my parents and sister came on down on Sunday to help move something out of the engine room so that I can have a lot more space. What was it that we moved?

THESE!

What the hell are those? Well the big tank looking thing with the wheel is the original compressor that was installed in Pathfinder from 1954 (most likely). It weighs, we guess, at least 500lbs. The big grey motor was on the compressor before I removed it on Saturday so that the compressor would be lighter. Would removing that make much of a difference? Yes. Very much so. It’s a 115 Volt (so 120 basically) electric motor that is most likely explosion proof given how much metal cladding is around it. For a bit of a comparison the other motor below it in the photo is a more modern version of the same thing that has a higher rpm rating. So ya. A bit of armour. When we got it out (using a variety of pulleys, hoistes, a giant crowbar and lots of sweat) and up onto deck the ships balance was affected. Normally we listed slightly to starboard. Now with the compressor out and on deck it lists noticeably to port. Just a bit heavy eh?

I wanted this done so that I could convert the space that it was taking up into storage for tools and gear that we don’t use during winter (like bikes) in the engine room. So now we have this space available.

Once the rest of the brackets have been removed along with some levelling of the deck in there I’ll be installing a floor to put stuff on and store it. Below the deck I’ll put some concrete or water tanks to trim the ship a bit.

Before that I had been pumping out the bilge in the engine room of which I don’t have photos but just to give an idea of what WAS in the bilge there was over a foot of diesel, glycol, oil, lake water, salt water, grey water, steering fluid and god knows what else floating around in there. I pumped all that out into barrels to be taken away as hazardous waste and I’m now in the process of drying out the bilge properly before I scrub it, scrape it, and paint it. Hopefully this’ll cut down on engine room smell among other things.

In a raw showing of skin here’s a photo of me rather dirty and shirtless after moving the compressor out.