More Snakes

We have been fighting more snakes this week. The exhaust hose for the generator also needs to be replaced and it's even longer than the engine exhaust hose since the generator is in the middle of the boat and the exhaust ports are on the transom. I'm guessing this hose is about 28' long. We started by removing the muffler and about six feet of hose under the galley sole. From there the hose goes under the starboard quarter berth so we started removing access panels and the HEAVY batteries.

Then we found that the battery shelf had been fiberglassed to the hull over the exhaust hose which is secured to the hull with a hose clamps. I was able to remove one hose clamp, but we think there are others under that shelf, so tonight we will take a skill saw to the battery shelf, create an access hole, and hopefully remove some more hose. After that we will only have the section behind the engine under the converter and refrigeration unit to remove.

The good thing is that we can remove a lot of old abandoned wires and hoses, re-route and re-secure the remaining ones, and clean more gunk out of the bilges. This boat may have looked clean on the surface, but below the floorboards it's disgusting!

And as with all boat projects, we should have just opened all the lockers and thrown their contents on the floor, because that's what it looks like now.