The weather for the past 6-8 weeks has been strange. Not so much hotter than other summers though it certainly feels that way, but more humid. I sweat from the simplest of tasks. It fogs my glasses and makes working difficult and uncomfortable. It is the kind of weather I would expect to encounter in the tropics where I intend to cruise. And as irritating as it is to work in it, it will be a pleasure to kick back once the boat is finished and cool off with a swim whenever it becomes irritating. There is a silver lining (there always is). I have had to fiddle around in a cramped ensuite fitting the toilet plumbing, in this very humid weather where my shirt gets soaking wet just fitting pipes and doing up bolts, and the beauty of these difficult conditions is that they emphasize how difficult it would be having to do repair work on the toilet in the tropics on a boat that is moving about so if I cannot do it on land in the shed, I wont be able to do it once launched. So it focused my attention on keeping every fitting easily accessible, easy to remove independent of the other parts etc.

I rethought a couple of fittings but because I was committed to the overall design I modified a part or 2 to keep it easy to fix. The part I changed was the hose fitting from the toilet to the first pump. I just could not get the white inch and half hose to bend around to make the connection. The walls of this hose are about 5mm (to keep smells in). Over such a short span it was just too difficult to remove or more accurately refit without removing everything just to get it to fit one end or the other but never both which is useless. In the end I made a hard fitting with pvc elbows and pipe and using rubber joiners on each end. It all now goes in easily and can be removed without removing any other items (the toilet or either pump).

With the toilet plumbing sorted, I glassed the back of the toilet area into the hull. The reason for it is to contain any leak in a confined and easily cleanable area and to separate it from the area in front of it that will contain the cistern, which will be difficult if not impossible to get to the section of hull under it. So while I wait for the float valves to arrive so I can finish the cistern and fit it and then fit the 2 holding tanks so I can finish this section off I started to work on the shaving cabinet. To fully finish it I will need to bring in power and water, and fit the exit valves once the tanks are in. Still a lot of work to do but some of the nuts and bolts stuff are falling into place. In regard to getting water and power in I have glued a pvc pipe through the bulkhead so that the hot and cold water hoses and a power line can go through to the toilet and then back into the ensuite for the shower.

The panel that covers over the D section will have a shaving cabinet embedded into it opening from the ensuite. I had initially intended having sliding doors but in the end it was simpler to just have them hinged (and probably with mirror doors). Behind the shaving cabinet there is still a lot of the D section cavity space and I will utilize that by putting doors in the bulkhead in the bed area in front of it and it can store spare pillows and blankets or be used as clothing storage by any guests on board, because that berth does not have as much clothes hanging space as either of the other 2 berths, the rear bunk has hanging space to the side of the walled off room in front of it and of course the port hull has a walk in robe, so this cupboard space will be needed in that berth.

The panel that covers the D section is semi structural so because I have cut a big hole in it I filled the edges with glass rope instead of filler. My intention is to just screw the shaving cabinet in place rather than glue and glass it so that I can get behind there should I ever need to rewire or re-plumb any of the ensuite. This may change though. I am rethinking whether I should have drawers or a cupboard through the bedroom side wall (the bulkhead) and if I have drawers then I can access this are through the drawer openings but if I have a cupboard with a shelf then this will require a side wall to be glassed in closing off my access to the wiring/plumbing so access would again go back to a removable shaving cabinet.

Usually a glass reinforced rope would be uni. I did not have any easily accessible (I only have a wide roll so I need to pull it out and cut some lengths off as I will need many uni rope edges around every through deck opening) so I decided to try double bias. Bad move. Double bias does not roll up anywhere near as well as uni does. In fact I made a bit of a mess as I desperately tried to keep the glass rolled as a rope as I tried to get it into the half filled (with filler) decored edge. I eventually got it all in but the edges are nowhere near as nice as in the doorways that I uni roped using the same method. It is because the edges dont look very nice that I am having second thoughts about having a removable shaving cabinet rather than a glassed in one, the glass would cover those poorly done edges. I will see if I can clean them up sufficiently before making a final decision.

Work has continued on making panels. I will need about 10 more and I am making about 1 a week at the moment, only because I dont want to interfere with the work schedule of my friend whose table it is. I am in no great hurry. I have a few weeks work to go before needing them, and I have 2 sheets done which means I can get a start at any time anyway. I have been applying peel ply to one side and making the other smooth against the table top. I may need some panels with peel ply on both sides which may mean doing one side at a time as we want to avoid having to turn a panel over once glass is applied as this leads to creases in the glass. What happens is the sheet bends slightly stretching the glass but when you lay it flat again the glass cannot contract to flat again and forms creases with air under them.