I’ve come to find that we are water snobs. I’m talking drinking water. The water in Folsom is amazing. It tastes great, it’s not hard, and has really low total dissolved solids. It’s so good that Kikkoman (you know, the soy sauce people) has a manufacturing plant there precisely because the water is so good. Folsom water comes from the bottom of Folsom Lake. That water comes from the American River, which comes from the snowmelt in the Sierras.
When we first smelled (you read right, smelled not tasted) the water at the marina we thought, “uh oh, this isn’t good.” The water smelled like sulfur and had a yellowish tint to it. Most people here drink bottled water. I don’t like the idea of buying water and then having all those bottles around. We certainly can’t have a bottled water dispenser because there is just no room for something like that on this boat. We were hoping a good filter system would fix the problem, and for the most part it has and flushing the water heater helped tremendously. The water doesn’t smell and it isn’t yellow anymore. But…the water still tastes like minerals and it’s really hard water. I have to put lotion on my hands after every time I get them wet or they turn chalky white. Rich says the drinking the water reminds him of drinking milk. It just has a weird mouth-feel to it. I’m really trying to get used to it, but I find myself drinking a lot of tea or juice over the water. I guess we need to research a water softener that’s small enough for a boat. Anyone have any suggestions?
Today Rich bedded the first portlight. The only Formica we have completed is in the bathroom so that’s the portlight he installed. He used butyl tape on the outside ring along with 3Ms 4000 UV. On the inside he just used the 4000 UV. It doesn’t harden like 5200 and is UV resistant. Some of the screws on each portlight are stripped out so before we bed the rest we’re going to fill in the old holes with epoxy and re-drill for the new screws.
Weekends at marinas are interesting because there’s a wider variety of people who come to hang out on their boats, go sailing, fishing, etc. There’s an older gentleman working on his boat on the other side of our dock (basically right in front of our boat.) I’m sure he told us his name but neither of us can remember it. We do remember his dog’s name though. Anyway, everyday he’s here he rocks cowboy boots and shorts. Every day. So that’s what we call him – Cowboy Shorts. There’s another fellow on D dock who rocks a tank top tucked into his jeans with a belt. He’s Tuck Tank. Then there’s the Fattingtons on A dock (they’re morbidly obese.) I’ve read several blogs of cruisers and they all say be sure the name of your boat is something you like because that’s what you’ll be known as by other cruisers. For instance, we might be known as the Ramble Ons or the Ramblers. More than likely we’ll be known as the antisocial assholes.