Saturday 29 October 2011

Otter

When I was done tonight I locked up and spent a few mins enjoying the views from the ship.  One thing I noted was what looked like the head of a seal bob up in the mariner.  It was over by the yachts so could not see clearly.  Then it disappeared and bobbed up again.  It soon became clear that it had a fish.  But what caught me by surprise was when it turned on its back and pulled at the fish with claws.

I have never seen an otter in the wild and never expected to see one dining in our marina.

Back in the kitchen

It was time to get out the power tools again.  Big grin.  Always fun.

Remember this?  Its the raised chunk of metal on concrete used to hold the old cooker.  It has to go.



Underneath the metal appeared to be a lot of concrete.  To enable us to cut it out it had to be dug out.  A job for the jack hammer.


Not an easy job.  But given an hour or so I managed to cut it all out to find it sitting on a large metal base.  Dave has given it the once over and is now ready to use cutting tools on it.





Once removed it will provide a large level area (with the rest of the kitchen) to fit out with whatever it is I put in the kitchen.

I also made the decision to remove all the bilge pump piping for a number of reasons.  The first is that it is old and ugly in its current routing.  The second is that now the ship is not out at see it has less use.  But the main reason is that it is driven by a very large and old pump which is unlikely to ever work again.  There will be a need for bilge pumps but I can fit modern ones below and use other routes for the pipes.

The other pipe in the kitchen was the green sea water pipe which is connected to the hull below the water line.  Its a pipe that makes me nervous if I am honest.  Its only use was to pump in sea water to push through the fire pipes.  Again the pump is the non working bilge pump.  There is simply no need for it.  So the plan is that, rather than risk removing it, Dave will weld a plate over the outside and we will cap it off in the engine room above water level.  Belt and braces.

I got to meet the neighbours today.  A nice couple (Ian and Sue) who have bought Onward Mariner.  So I was lucky enough to get another viewing of a ship I nearly bought.  It looks like a great project and the ship is in great condition.  They are new to this too so we will be sharing the little knowledge I have to date.  Good luck Sue and Ian.

Apart from some tidying up and getting all tools back to the main workshop (they were everywhere) it was a quiet day.

But good to be back.

Sunday 16 October 2011

Spares

I have just about moved office which included the closing down and stripping out of our data centre.  Managed to pick up some spare electrical components (Merlin cabinets of MCBs etc) and a pile of heavy duty (high current) cables.  Not long ones but perfect for using to join the main components and batteries.

Just need to find the time to get down there and start to finish some of the rooms.