Cpap install on s\v Elegant'sea - 2011

 This Saturday was our first after a week of living on the boat. So we had a lot of little items that need to be done to make our live aboard life easier.

 On the top of the list was to get my Cpap machine out of the stateroom drawer and into a spot that will work better at least temporarily. This will work it’s self out over time I am sure.

May 2011 - At Marina Cortez Harbor Island, San Diego, CA

The CPAP machine was in the big drawer and the hose running out and up to the bed. There were two chords running to an extension chord going into the salon. Not a nice setup.

 After a lot of thought over this over the last year or so I decided just in the storage are under the step by the bed would be best. On weekend I have used the CPAP machine and was thinking of a sunken shelf behind the door into the wall there and other ideas. None seemed to strike me as particularly good.

 The new location will need to get some venting for fresh air. That way it will not draw it from the bilge.

 The dorad vent hose was a logical choice but then I would also be getting air and noise from the bilge as well as outside.

 A 2 or 3 inch hose up to the mattress height sees for now a good option.

So we started by drilling a hole through the ¾ inch plywood mattress by the dorad hose that goes to the bilge. It needed to be there because the big drawer is taking up a lot of area.

 Then we came to find out there is a double layer. Inside the storage locker it is Cedar lined. Well the top has a piece of Cedar wood lining it. So we had to drill another whole up from the bottom. Then we duck tapped the electrical cord for my side of the mattress pad and the CPAP hose together with a piece of stiff wire and fished them through.

 Because of the distance we had to duct tape another hose to the original so the machine could reach the mask. This can probably be fixed as the one hose is almost long enough. I think with placing the machine a little further aft it could go back to one hose. Any way it all worked out. At a later time we will wire it up so when at anchor it runs off the house batteries. Then it can not use the humidifier but I am not sure it need to epically in the more humid climate like the south of Mexico.

 After drilling the first hole the hole saw fell out of the keyless chuck in the drill and put a small gouge in our new deck. I do not think it screwed up the teak and holly veneer but did go through the epoxy layer.

Dam! It is like getting the first supper market ding on your new car! Bummer Dude!

After that it was vacuum time and the CPAP machine worked great last knight like that.  

The ding!