Mark to the rescue

This morning I “bit the bullet” and started wiring the data cable into the Empirbus nodes.  The cable I’d been given by Andy had four cores (2x white, 1x red & 1x brown).  Each core had a coaxial copper screen and there was also a 12 strand tinned copper wire.  Eventually I worked out only the four core were required and I commenced wiring the data cable into the four nodes and two membrane switches.

My heart sank when I reached the last node only to discover the last of the small connection blocks between the node and the wiring was missing.  Without it the system would not be able to be commissioned.  That’s when I decided to telephone Mark Zimmerman of Atlantis Marine who are the UK suppliers of the Empirbus system.  Mark has always been very helpful throughout the planning and build of Waiouru and I was confident he would be able to assist.

His mobile went to message bank however Mark phoned me back very quickly.  Whilst he is based in Southampton, Mark was actually in Colchester on business having left home at 6:00AM that morning.  He had a replacement part with him and informed me he would divert via Waiouru on his way home to deliver the connector.   As it was Mark found me at 6:00PM in the local cafe beer sipping the last of a pint of larger.  We had a good chat and then he had to leave for home.  It was a long day for him and we are most appreciative of the extra time and effort he took to deliver our critical part.

The other work completed on Waiouru today included the masking of all the joins in the shower by Darren ready for it to be sealed tomorrow by Nick.  Andy connected the gas line to the hob and will finish the connection for the oven tomorrow.  That should see the gas system on Waiouru finished.  Richard has made a start on the major joinery in back cabin whilst Jan and I have run the cable for the bow thruster controls and made a start on the power cables from the engine bay to the bow thruster batteries.

Everyone was so busy today there was no time for photos.  Back to normal tomorrow… I hope!