Our First Days of "JOY"

We did it!  We actually did it!

Yesterday, I figured out how to make flame come out of the burners on the stove.  That is my small victory for the day.  I still don't know how to tell how much water we have in the tanks, or how to "unpickle" the watermaker, or what are all those other objects in the forward locker.  But that's ok, cause

...we have "Joy"!

What ARE all those things!?

There is a toggle switch on the A/C panel that says "start/stop."  It is under the line voltage indicator.  There is another toggle that says "preheat."  (Unlike "start/stop," I have only to asume the toggle options on this switch are preheat or don't.)  It is under the load current indicator.  I don't know if there is a connection between these two toggles or the toggles and the indicators directly above them. It's all good though, cause

...we have our boat!

I tried to figure out which seacocks need to be opened to enable water to flow into and out of the heads and sinks, but there are so many hoses and seacocks and so many electrical wires blocking my view of them that I couldn't trace either the inlet or outlet.

There is a breaker on the panel labeled "salt water pump."  Where is the actual pump, I wonder, and where all does it pump salt water to?  (As an aside, I take "salt water" in this instance with a grain of the aforementioned: I assume it is intended as a generic term for any kind of water that comes directly into the boat rather than through the watermaker (see above).)

What do I do if after I turn on the breaker for the refrigerator and wait a day or so, nothing happens?  I mean after I turn on the inlet for the refrigerator, that is...or maybe the generator?...or both?

Under the starboard aft berth, we discovered the hot water heater?  Does it have seacocks--or valves, rather since it/they wouldn't draw in sea water.  If so, where are they located?  But, hey, whatever.  The important thing is that

...we have a boat.

There is another breaker on the panel labeled "entertainment center." It controls both the car stereo and an electronic device below it which seems to be an equalizer of some sort.  I have no idea what an equalizer equalizes and I'm fairly convinced that it's not connected to the radio in any meaningful way, the radio that is that plays  religious music on the only 3 channels that come in regardless of whether it's on "FM 1," FM 2," or "FM 3."  Thankfully, it does have a USB port.  So, as soon as we transfer our 674+ songs from whatever format iPods use to a stick drive, we will have music throughout our boat--except in any of the cabins where though there are speakers, they are not connected now and may never have been to the rest of the system (whatever parts that entails).  It's all a matter of perspective, however.  Cause, after all

...we own a boat.

We bought bag ice to keep our drinks cold and put it in the sink.  As the ice melts, it drains out of the bag into the sink and out of the sink down into a pipe which either drains into the holding tank, or else directly overboard.  I have no idea which and don't know how to tell.

We are ecstatic that it's too cold to need air conditioning.  Ironic as that may sound coming from people who are fleeing from winter forever, we fall to our knees in gratitude for anything we don't have to figure out now.  We bought a portable heater, which seemed simple enough, a "plug and go" sort of thing,  and worked fine for a couple of hours last night, but this morning, a few moments ago it shut itself off and tripped the breaker...?  But once again, looking on the upside

...we own this boat.

Someday, when we are very salty, this will be one of those tales with which we regale newbie cruisers: "Oh, you should have seen us when we first bought our boat.  We didn't know the first thing about how to work it.  We couldn't even get our little heater to stay on."  Yeah, that'll be when we look back in disbelief at our audacity.  I'm looking forward to looking back on it.  But for right now my nose is cold and I'm pretty much over the half-block walk to the bathhouse every time I need to take a leak.