Frustrating fail

Yesterday was another very misty start so easy to stay in the boat until it cleared a little.  The job was to bond the new solar panel to the roof. Should have been simple !

The mist is quite atmospheric and I could hear this boat thumping away well before its tunnel light came into view. 

For my reference this is the solar panel I am installing. It is really just to maintain the boat batteries as I have a little Victron charge controller that so far has kept the batteries topped up nicely between visits. At the mooring we have lots of space for a little ground array  - depending how long we stay on this mooring it might be an option. The old solid panel had done sterling service on Waterlily and Percy and must be over 15 years old and was 145w when new. It may get repurposed at home. 

The reason for the new bonded panel is three fold. The old one was a bit small and old now, I didn't like the look of it sitting on its taxi magnets but critically there is a patch of filler covering a low spot in the roof. Despite the boat painter renewing it when the boat was painted in 2015 it still cracked and water got in and lifted the paint  - it looked a mess. I have used liquid metal as a filler this time which was not cheap but will be much more effective. As I am covering it with the panel for weather protection and foe the best position  the over painting was not really needed but I did it to add a bit more protection. The colour was immaterial as it was being covered up so I used a couple of coats of primer and undercoat and two top coats just for protection.  The panel is going across.

Then it all went tits up as I knocked the Sikoflex 522 into the canal and despite using the fishing landing net and me even getting into the canal in my chest waders it was lost to the deep. The deep being the salient point. On our old mooring it would have dropped into the silt and I'd have been able to reach in and get it out. here when I went in in my chest waders I was up to my chest so a good 4 foot deep even by the boat and feeling with my feet I could feel how much water we have under Percy here. The cylinder of sealant almost certainly rolled under the boat as it could. Very frustrating as it meant I had to put everything back and as no one locally has the 522 I had to order it off the internet for a home delivery. even more frustrating it's going to get colder so this little project is on hold now until we can get over again in the right temps. 

Today I'll do an oil change and replace the Greaseomatic on the stern greaser - once a year job. Again not cheap but effective and they keep a constant pressure of grease on the stern tube. When done I'll record it separately as the miles between oil changes will be low but new oil in the engine over the winter can only be a good thing.