Very little progress was made over the winter on the latest round of updates and improvements, for the reasons already mentioned.
However, at last I was able to crack on with some key jobs. The first, to keep the female crew members quite, was finally installing the hot water system I've had all the bits in storage for some considerable time, the only I hadn't had until now was the time!Fitting the new hot water calorifier was a beast of a job. The only sensible option was to install it in the otherwise unusable space in the engine bay, space that was serving no useful purpose, but that meant squeezing it into a tight space whilst working in an equally tight space!
I'm fairly pleased with the end result though. A sturdy plywood shelf mounted on brackets at either end to the side bulkheads carries the calorifier on top and the water pump and accumulator tank underneath. In the end, it has hardly compromised the engine access at all and made no difference to accessing the sea cocks from the aft cabin.
Hot water is currently mains only but I hope to have the engine plumbing in place in the next couple of days which will give us a tank full of hot water after a couple of hours engine running.
Fitting the new taps was fun ... not but I got there in the end. The joy of having a shower on board cannot be overstated. Marina showers are all well and good but my grumble about them is that you have to get dried (as best you can) and dressed as soon as you step out from under the shower. That's not very relaxing!
I haven't actually managed to run the hot water out yet having a shower (I don't spend a long time in the shower anyway) but I reckon there's a good fifteen minutes or more "on tap". That's comfortably enough for two or three people to have a quick boat shower (wet down, turn off, soap up, turn on, rinse off!).
The major job that I wanted to complete before our upcoming Summer Cruise, was installing the additional diesel tank. As the first step of this job was, of neccessity, moving the water pump, it had to be second on the list.With the pump in it's new location (where it is MUCH quieter by the way) the new tank could be fitted in the bottom of the locker. This also required a plywood shelf plus the addition of two tie down straps to keep it in place.
I'm part way through the plumbing of the new tank, delayed by the mysterious disappearance of the diesel pick up pipe which should be in our storage and isn't. I've got a replacement arriving on Monday, it was only a few beer tokens to simply order another one rather than muck about.
The second tank will double our diesel capacity from 88 litres to 176 litres which, of course, will double our range under power. We should now be able to run for getting on for 60 hours non-stop without refuelling.
I am though going to leave the two 20l jerry cans behind and reduce my spare fuel load to three 10l plastic cans. The jerry cans take up a lot of space and have a habit of leaking (I found a little puddle of diesel in the bottom of the locker which explains the complaints from the denizens of the aft cabin about a funny smell). It's also a pain to refuel from the jerry cans especially at sea.
Work came to a temporary halt mid-May when Jane and I had a fortnight on board. We decided to spend a few days away from our berth but return on the same springs in order to get on with sorting the boat out. We had a bit of sailing, a bit of motoring, two nights at anchor and back to base. Very pleasant it was too.
What wasn't so pleasant was the developing abcess that had me well out of sorts by the second week. So once again things got in the way of things that needed to be done. Oh well, anbtibiotics work wonders and hopefully it won't flare up again.
Jane had a hospital appointment which kept me up in Kettering until yesterday so now it's full steam ahead to get ready for our planned departure a week tomorrow (of which more anon)
Good to hear..! :o)
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