Sunday 30 December 2012

Back to where it all started....

So today I tried to sort out the pressure solenoid for the water pump.... limited success, but like all such jobs it gets you a broader understanding of how things work on the boat.

The bigger job was to fit the same type water gauge that I fitted to Waterlily. This one came as a present to Percy from Rachel..... she read my blog here.... Not difficult as the access to the tank is easy and there is plenty of working space under the well deck. There is still a leak from the tank side fitting to the stop tap... I hope it is the tap and not the fitting to the water tank itself. I will wait till we are out of water the tackle that one.

All in and semi working, it will only be accurate after the next fill up when I can calibrate it.

I then replace the reading light under the bed cupboard. The one fitted was a little weedy and I brought two so we can read or not read as we wish without disturbing the other in bed.

I took Rachel to Derby as she was working again today (the health service does not have holidays thankfully - I am writing this on Sunday) I swung by home and collected my medications... and took the opportunity for a quick shower. Only when passing Burton upon Trent did I realise I have left my glasses at home ! I did the work on the boat in Rachel's old reading specs... I looked a sight !

Finished by making a pan full of tasty stew, Leia is waiting for hers to cool, it will make a nice lunch tomorrow...

My youngest son Callum drove over to say bye as he is heading back to Leeds tonight with his girlfriend, Emma. He kindly brought my glasses over. It has been really good having him with us over Christmas. As we were chatting Callisto came back from Alrewas having winded due to the Trent being in flood.

He topped Percy back up with 43 litres of fuel. Based on my estimation of 28 hours running that makes a use of 1.5 litres an hour. Water lily was about 1.1 litres an hour. This seems higher than I was expecting but then again Percy is a big heavy boat with a 3 litre engine !

As we now do not have to run the engine for hot water I will pay more attention to my solar panel and its input into the two batteries rather than three on Waterlily. I really need that extra Christmas present....the Smartgauge ! I really am in the dark on how long I need to run the engine for to keep the batteries topped up. So far so good on 1.5 - 2 hours running a day. I think anyone living aboard should have one... they would save its cost in a year by not having to run their engine as long.

Oh...and the reason for the title, one of the Hunts boaters is moving on and his 45 foot mooring has been taken by Mandy my neighbour on NB Don't Panic. Her  mooring is quite bad as it is sunken below the piling and is on a bad slope with plenty of roots showing  - no wonder she broke her leg in October getting off her boat. It is really quite dangerous. Anyhow I have shifted up a coupe of yards  back to my original mooring when I had NB Comet. This gives Kev my other neighbour the gap back when Waterlily was on the mooring. If the mooring officer wants to auction the mooring, she should not as there is 18 boats on Hunts which it the agreed limit and the mooring is dangerous, We will have to shuffle again. For now I have regained our storage box within the mooring which is nice.



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