Slept well despite the rising wind. Woke up briefly in the early hours to find she was bouncing around quite a lot! After a quick visit to the heads, I dropped off to sleep again pretty quickly. Warm enough on board with the fan heater running on the thermostat to stop things getting too chilly.
Woke up about six-ish. The usual breakfast was followed by a frosties bar and more coffee. Although I'd brought the means for bacon butties etc. couldn't really face anything more solid as yesterdays "under the weather" has turned into a definite case of a dodgy stomach.
Stirred myself about nine to remove the sprayhood as the stitching around one of the windows has pulled out along the top edge. Shouldn't be too much trouble to repair and there's some frayed edges that would benefit from some remedial work as well. Popped the battery in charge - pleased to discover that it only started charging at 4A indicating the battery was still fairly well charged. The bilge pump switch hasn't stuck again so that's a plus.
Loading the sprayhood into the car, I decided to get off the boat for a couple of hours and do some exploring by car in the hope that my upset stomach might settle down. It wasn't working so I popped into a chemists where the pharmacist doled out some magic pills which seemed to do the trick.
Back to the boat, I wandered down to the end of the pontoon to have a look at the state of the water now the tide had turned. I was hoping that once the ebb started running it might flatten the waves a bit compared to the wind over tide earlier in the day but there wasn't much sign of improvement.
Bit of a head scratcher this - conditions were definitely not conducive to rowing back up the river in the little 7' dink. In fact, I'd have been a bloody fool to try it. Whilst I could stay on board until tomorrow, the forecast is no better and it'd be an uncomfortable night to say the least.
Fortunately, Toby stuck his head out of his cabin to say "hello" as I walked back down the pontoon and by the time I'd said "I don't much fancy rowing the tender in this ..." he immediately said to leave Brigantia on the pontoon and he'll put her back on the buoy when things settle down. He's a top bloke, is Toby!
Back on board, I staggered about between the laptop and the engine well measuring up. I reckon the new outboard will fit but only just. We'll probably have to modify or replace the mounting and might have to mod the hole at the bottom of the well which is rather tight. If it has to be done, it has to be done - we need that new engine. If I'd been having some doubts about replacing it they vanished when petrol started pissing out of the carb yesterday. Enough is enough.
That job done, I packed up my kit, shut up shop and staggered back to the car to head home early in the afternoon. I'd have liked to have achieved more but there's only so much you can do in a force 8/9 gale!
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Tuesday 6 December 2011
Windy Winter Trip - Day 1
I've got the week off work and Jane is off tonight and tomorrow so I'm off to Fambridge for a quick visit to the boat. After picking up the workers from the big warehouse, I head off along the A14 mid-morning after the rush hour died down.
Arriving at Fambridge about lunchtime, I launch the tender and row down to our mooring. Along the way, it dawns on me, and I really don't know why I didn't cotton on sooner, that the handy folding oars that came with the tender are far too short for serious rowing. I'll add a set of longer oars to the shopping list when I get home.
After sorting out the fenders and mooring lines, I start the engine only for the carb float to stick once again. It hasn't done this lately and I thought I'd sorted it once and for all. The fix is usually to strip the carb down but I realised with dismay that all the tools were in the boot of the car. Firtled around and found something long and something heavy. Placed the long thing on the carb and whacked it a few times with the heavy thing (don't ask what the things were, you might be eating with them if you have a meal with us!) and hey presto, that got the bloody thing working again.
Slightly miffed by all the space on the inside of the pontoon being taken up with one big boat in the middle of each gap between the piles. Didn't fancy trying to move a boat up myself on the ebb tide with nobody about to help so nothing for it but to lie on the outside of the pontoon in the rougher water.
By the time I'd tied up, sorted things out and got the shore power on to run the fan heater I was feeling a bit under the weather so I climbed into my beeping slag for a nap. Three hours later, I work up and made myself tinned chilli-con-carne and boil in the bag rice. Later, I wandered up to the pub for a couple of pints before hitting the sack for the night.
Arriving at Fambridge about lunchtime, I launch the tender and row down to our mooring. Along the way, it dawns on me, and I really don't know why I didn't cotton on sooner, that the handy folding oars that came with the tender are far too short for serious rowing. I'll add a set of longer oars to the shopping list when I get home.
After sorting out the fenders and mooring lines, I start the engine only for the carb float to stick once again. It hasn't done this lately and I thought I'd sorted it once and for all. The fix is usually to strip the carb down but I realised with dismay that all the tools were in the boot of the car. Firtled around and found something long and something heavy. Placed the long thing on the carb and whacked it a few times with the heavy thing (don't ask what the things were, you might be eating with them if you have a meal with us!) and hey presto, that got the bloody thing working again.
Slightly miffed by all the space on the inside of the pontoon being taken up with one big boat in the middle of each gap between the piles. Didn't fancy trying to move a boat up myself on the ebb tide with nobody about to help so nothing for it but to lie on the outside of the pontoon in the rougher water.
By the time I'd tied up, sorted things out and got the shore power on to run the fan heater I was feeling a bit under the weather so I climbed into my beeping slag for a nap. Three hours later, I work up and made myself tinned chilli-con-carne and boil in the bag rice. Later, I wandered up to the pub for a couple of pints before hitting the sack for the night.