Begone foul ... water

Not so foul really but who can resist a play on Shakespearian words? Not me, at any rate

After several days of rushing around attending to other matters, today was dedicated to working on Pagan. (I had planned otherwise but the foul weather made a trip to Brightlingsea on work business distinctly unattractive - it's being blowing old boots and chucking it down all night and most of the day)

After a stop for breakfast at the clubhouse, in accordance with senior officer's orders, we popped down to Burnham for some bits needed to do the main job I wanted to tackle today

That task was the fitting of a 900 gallon per hour main bilge pump. Pagan is sadly lacking in the pump department having only one manual bilge pump and that rarely works at all (it's very reluctant to prime, a sure sign it needs servicing if not replacing)

I wanted a serious bit of kit and I'm impressed with what I got ...

 It's a Rule LoPro with lots of features (three different automatic modes, rotating outlet and pick up head and hose tails for 3/4", 1" and 1 1/4" hoses etc.) but most critically it shifts 900 gallons per hour

That's fifteen gallons a minute and it was the fastest pumping rate pump I could get for sensible money that would fit in the ideal spot at the deepest point above the keel

The challenge, as always, was running the hose from the pump to the best place for the outlet. I chose to fit a new skin fitting high up on the port side adjacent to the manual bilge pump outlet. That meant running the hose from the pump under the saloon sole through three floors and a bulkhead between the engine bay and the port cockpit locker.

That took a couple of hours plus and then the cable had to be run via the same route up to the existing electrical switch panel where I removed a redundant toggle switch and replaced it with an on-off-on switch to give us auto - off - manual switching

I was a very happy bunny when I powered everything up and it ran perfectly. It's a very quiet unit and it shifted the last lot of water dumped into the bilges by the leaking water tank in no time at all.

Of course, the ultimate purpose of fitting a high capacity pump isn't to overcome our temporary fresh water leakage. The pump is a big 'un in order to deal with far more serious leaks from the outside in.

Whilst I had the saloon sole boards up, I also ran the cable from the new fluxgate compass head I installed the other day down to the Tacktick transducer box under the navigators seat.

And since I had the switch panels out to wire up the bilge pump, it made sense to connect up the Tacktick NMEA interface to the Raymarine NMEA to Seatalk converter while I was at it!

The fluxgate compass will give us heading information on both the Tacktick instruments and, via the interface, on the chart plotter.

That's good to have - it allows the wind instrument to display true as well as apparent wind and enables proper target tracking on radar and AIS targets on the chart plotter plus a host of other benefits.

The NMEA interface will make the depth, speed (log), heading and wind data available to the chart plotter which apart from the above benefits gives access to information such as calculated set and drift as well as heading and wind vectors on the chart display

None of it is mission critical but I firmly believe in having as much info as I can get my hands on and wrap my brain around. More data is better than less when it comes to navigation and pilotage!

Anyway, back to the plot ...

The Fluxgate worked out of the box needing only to be corrected by 180 degrees because of the way round it ended up being installed (this is not a mistake, it just comes set up to be orientated in a particular direction and if you nail it on to a suitable place the other way round you go into the setup and reverse the heading)

However, the wireless network isn't seeing the NMEA interface at all. I suspect it isn't getting any power as I had a succession of niggling problems behind the switch panels which led to a rather later finish than I intended.

The panels and associated wiring are slated for replacement at some point

I gave up and left fixing that until another day as it was by now gone seven and we were both hungry. Jane knocked up a quick meal of tinned stew - the delay in finishing work having scuppered her plans to pop out for some fresh ingredients to make a casserole

Tomorrow is a trip to Kettering and back as Jane is back at work then if the weather gods will just play fair for a few days I've got work to catch up on up in Brightlingsea and then on Sunday it's the Fambridge River Festival where I'm part of the entertainment

Fambridge Lamp-oons Vacation

So I've got a day or two off from working on other people's boats.

Time to relax? Put my feet up? Take it easy?

Nope, not a hope

Having driven up to Kettering yesterday and cleared out the last of our stuff from the storage facility, it was back on the road at an ungodly hour this morning

Once back on board, we both had heads on pillows pretty damn quick!

I was up around half nine, Jane surfaced a couple of hours later.

Fortified by coffee, we had a walk through the boat discussing refit plans. All bar one of my ideas met with approval (my tentative thoughts about changing the arrangement of the saloon lockers was given the thumbs down but I wasn't entirely convinced myself on that one)

We had a few thoughts about the aft cabin which involved trying out different sleeping arrangements. A cross double seemed to work quite well given that we both dozed off whilst trying it out!

So, we're close to formulating a cunning plan of which more anon

To get the ball rolling, I set about replacing the bulkhead oil lamps in the saloon...



The old lamps, whilst a rather nice design, were rather tired with stiff wick winders and a missing chimney on one of them. The pattern of chimney in question is not readily available and I'd decided to replace the lamps with new Fastnet lamps for which the chimneys are widely stocked by chandlers

It was one of the easier jobs on the boat and soon done...



With that task completed, I made a start on adding the new (expensive!) components to the Tacktick micronet system.

The first task was to decide where to mount the fluxgate compass head and after some cogitation I went for screwing it to the inside of the saloon table upright just beneath the bottle locker

The fluxgate needs to be at near add possible to the centre of motion of the boat and as far from anything that could affect the magnetic field as possible. The chosen location is about as good as we're going to get on both counts

I got as far as screwing the fluxgate head to the table leg and then it was time to call it a day and head for the pub

We'd decided to treat ourselves tonight and the steaks were indeed a treat

Back aboard, Jane was away with the fairies. I decided to try out the new lamps...



Not bad, not bad! They'll probably get relocated by a few inches when we sort out the saloon but I'm not to displeased with them

Oh and I forgot to mention that once again there's rather a lot of fresh water in the bilge. We're going to have to deal with the water tank issue sooner than we'd hoped. Hey ho, so far it's the only unexpected problem. There's bound to be others, that's boats for you!

Water, water, everywhere...

Quite what motivated me to check the bilge yesterday is a mystery even to me but I was a little disconcerted to find a LOT of water

A taste test (yuk but it's the only way) confirmed, to my relief, that the water was entirely fresh with not a trace of saltiness

That meant one of two possibilities - either rainwater getting in somewhere or a leak in the fresh water system

The water needed shifting and with no effective bilge pump yet (it's on the list!) that meant hand baling. And baling and baling!

Forty 1.5 gallon bucketfuls later and it would need a sponge to shift the last inch or so.

Yep, that's 60 gallons of water and the tank only holds 45!

Given that the bilge was fairly dry 4 weeks ago, that's about 2 gallons a day. That amount coming in through the deck via a dodgy fitting would be unlikely to escape notice so my focus was on the fresh water system

Usefully, the water ran out late last night so I grabbed the chance to investigate this morning. Refilling the tank, I then checked the bilge and lo and behold there was at least 3 gallons in the bilge again

Given that the pump isn't cycling, I concentrated on the unpressurised supply between the tank and the pump



I found a leak on the outlet from the tank which, whilst not a torrent, would certainly have made a significant contribution to the leakage.

I also discovered that the emergency foot pump in the galley weeps slightly.

Both problems, I hoped, would be solved by replacing the last few inches of hose on the outlet spigots and fitting new jubilee clips with the addition of taps to close of the supply to the foot pump unless it's needed and to the main system for maintenance (thus avoiding the need to empty the tank in future if repairs are needed)



With that done by late afternoon, I refilled the tank whilst watching everything closely

All went well, and dry, until the tank was virtually full at which point I could hear air escaping from the tank somewhere and a trickle of water emerged from under the tank in the bilge

One source of air was definitely the seal around the inspection hatch but that wasn't leaking any water. The second source of air is more of a worry as I'm pretty sure it's coming from the top seam of the tank on the starboard side

Access is not easy to say the least and removing the tank is not something I want to even think about.

For now, I think we will avoid over filling the tank - turning the hose off as soon as the breather stops burbling rather than trying to squeeze an extra bit in - and hope that the tank only leaks under pressure

If it continues to be a problem, my next option is to attempt an in-situ repair by whatever means offers a chance of success.

All that was left to do was to put the boat back together again which only took a couple of hours!

It was a distraction I could have well done without as I've got more than enough to do as it is. Still, the one upside is that we've got marvellously clean bilges!

There is nothing...

Half so much worth doing a simply messing about on boats

So today I've simply been messing about on Pagan!

My main mission was to access the water tank and measure it to work out the capacity

Once I'd unscrewed the base of the v-berth the tank was visible...



It's big and it's complicated! I've got some reasonably accurate measurements but it's going to take some working out and I had better things to do today

Whilst I had the berth cushions off, I had a look at the three stowage spaces under there.



The forward space is probably of little practical use as it's not very big and awkward to get at

However, the spaces aft under the head ends of the berths would be useful but they'll need lining out and the port side is badly compromised by the water tank plumbing...



That will need sorting!

With the v-berth back together and my bedding made up, after I'd had a good clean before putting the cushions back, it was time for a spot of lunch

Then I headed up to the yard to spend a couple of hours organising the container. It's by no means tidy yet but I've made a useful start.

Back aboard for coffee, then it was out with the laptop to update the operating system on the chart plotter. The latest, and final, version of the software allows higher capacity flash cards to work and has better AIS handling.

Whilst I had the card reader out, it made sense to update the charts too and then I had a bit of a play with the plotter

That confirmed something I already suspected - a lot of useful functions and facilities are limited or non - functional without a heading sensor (electronic compass)

As the autopilot I plan to fit this year includes a built in heading sensor, this won't be a problem for long

Then it was time for dinner and a bit of telly. Sleep, however, is proving elusive.

Our first week aboard - a retrospective

Although I'm virtually living aboard due to work commitments, we had our first opportunity to spend time aboard as a couple in "floating cottage" mode last week

In one way, it was a nuisance that I was far too busy to take much time off work while Jane was aboard but in another it was a good test of how our lifestyle will be from next year

All in all, it went very well indeed. We already know that apart from the cooking the domestic systems are lacking but that's on the "to do" list already.

Happily, we've both concluded that the galley is perfectly usable. We were a little concerned it would prove a bit small but it's just not a problem.

Another niggle we've found is that the foot end of the v-berth is rather narrow. We're used to the generous space for feet on Erbas and, slightly surprisingly, the berth on Pagan is nowhere near as wide.

However, I suspect the berth is narrower than it could be as there is an internal lining which I'm pretty sure is eating up several inches of width. That said, we may get used to it anyway

That aside, she's proving to be a very comfortable boat to be aboard. There's loads of space to move around and now that we're getting on top of the storage plenty of places to put stuff

The aft cabin is already fulfilling one of its intended functions as guest accommodation. It'll be some time, and probably not this year, before we get around to refitting the cabin but ideas are already being considered

All in all, a good start to our adventures with Pagan. Jane is back aboard for a long weekend in a fortnight then again the following weekend, albeit briefly, for the Fambridge River Festival.

Mid-June we have a whole twelve days aboard together and if the work schedule permits and I can get the leaky stern gland repacked in time we'll try and get out and about for at least a week of it. Nothing ambitious, just a potter around local waters.

"Floating Cottage", by the way, is how we refer to being aboard on our home berth with no plans to go anywhere. As opposed to "Cruising" mode.

In "floating cottage" mode it doesn't matter how much water we use, we're always on shore power and running out of something is easily sorted by a quick trip to the shop.

It's mainly a different mindset, rather than a significant difference in how the boat is setup (at least as things stand)

Summer is icumen in

A glorious weekend on the River Crouch at last. After all the cold weather in March and early April it was a delight to have warmth and sunshine and even the Easterly breeze (again) was welcome for it's gently cooling

It's been work, work and more work this past week or two on customers boats.

After I'd finished work on Friday I set about making the aft cabin habitable again. The crated kit that had come off Erbas was distributed into lockers with the exception of one crate which went into storage (mostly books because we don't have a bookcase for them yet)

That proved useful as Tony arrived at the moorings mid-evening and didn't take too much persuading to abandon his plan to row down to Pleinair against the flood tide and go up the pub instead! So after a few beers he crashed in the aft cabin for the night

Saturday continued the work trend with a trip up a customers mast in the morning and planning the next stage of an ongoing project in the afternoon. Not that I'm complaining. Tony brought Pleinair up alongside the pontoon and gave me a hand with the mast climbing rig (which I've now sorted out to my satisfaction) then the good ship Laurin arrived and we played musical boats to get them alongside

Saturday evening we entertained the crew of Laurin aboard Erbas with a fine beef stew, beer or wine and song. It was a pleasure to be able to return the hospitality we've often enjoyed aboard Laurin now that we have a big(ish!) boat!

Sunday was a bit of a make and mend day. Jane decided the cooker and surrounding area needed a more thorough clean than I'd given it and then set about rearranging the cutlery drawer and cabin stores to her satisfaction

Meanwhile, I removed the end stops from the tracks and removed the main companionway hatch. It's been very sticky to the extent that Jane especially has been struggling to open and close it. At some point the tracks have been lubricated with silicon grease which would have been fine initially but the stuff inevitably goes sticky after a while.

Copious quantities of WD40 and lots of rags later, I'd removed as much of the grease as I could get at and then I lubed the tracks and slides with silicon spray which doesn't dry out. With the hatch back in, opening and closing it is now a one finger operation

My next mission was to repair the broken power plug on the coolbox I had been planning to use in the van. It's now in use on board in place of the completely defunct built in fridge. The fan noise is a bit annoying but it'll have to do for now

Sorting the fridge is no.1 on the to-do list. The decision has been taken to refurbish the original coolbox under the galley counter with a new compressor and plate, extra insulation if possible and a new lid. Long term, we may then re-purpose the insulated box under the port berth as a freezer but that's way way in the future!

Fixing and fettling ceased when we were invited up the pub for a drink by the crew of Artemis late afternoon and then it was back on board to cook up a meal and watch a bit of telly before retiring

It's back to work today with a busy week or two ahead and more to follow.