Bed and more exhaust work

Another diversion from mechanical systems work... We decided that we needed a comfortable place to sleep overnight when working on the boat so I built the bed frame and installed the mattress in the aft cabin. When it comes to boat interiors, every inch becomes critical and this was no exception. We wanted the width of a queen bed but the length would have made for a tight squeeze between the foot of the bed and the bathroom bulkhead. (I'll let Sue tell the story...) OK, this is Sue...I really wanted a Queen size mattress after speaking to a neighbor who cruised around the world. She said especially in the tropics & as you get older, that extra 6 inches of width will mean a lot to you. I told Peter one night & he said we just couldn't make it work. He tried every which way to make the queen size work into our layout but we just didn't have the room. I was crushed (on the inside) but tried to put on a brave face (on the outside). One night, when we had to make a final decision, I said what about customizing. Pete looked around on the internet and found there is indeed a size called a short queen which is the width of a queen but the length of a full. Jackpot! (Back to Pete...) We ordered from a company called Rocky Mountain Mattress and two weeks later a rather small cardboard box arrived at the shop. I was a little concerned until I opened it and discovered that it had been thoroughly vacuum packed for shipping and was squished down to about half of its normal size. Once I cut into the bag, it "inflated" fully in about 30 seconds and was just as advertised. Its a combination of urethane and latex foam. Very comfortable and supposedly hypoallergenic and mold/mildew resistant. With a nice place to sleep, it was back to work on the exhaust system. We also cleaned up a bit and rearranged for our next project up forward, which will be installation of all the wood nailers for the forward cabin interior. PS - Sue again..the bed is awesome!!