Jan wandered of for a walk this morning whilst I cleaned my leather walking boots in preparation for the next walk. The front cabin doors were then opened to allow some of the warmth from the boat to dry out the cratch. Whilst I was in the cratch I decided to adjust the TV aerial mast with the intention of improving the signal. Ollie obviously confused my presence on the gunwale as an opportunity to scavenge for food. Damned swan is an optimist as Jan is the one who does the feeding. Anyway, I managed to adjust the aerial despite Ollie pecking at my ankles!
Next I fitted two of the cheap bungy cords purchased yesterday around the cratch cover top plank. It’s an experiment to see if they will be suitable for securing the small circular folding clothes hangers which Jan plans to use to dry the washing. Last time I was in Reading I’d noticed some cheap inflatable boat fenders in Clas Ohlson on the high street so I purchased two. Today I secured them to the post on the stern. They need some cordage and a handrail hook before they can be used. Another job!
The Refleks diesel stove is now on the lowest possible setting without going out. It’s still keeping Waiouru very warm, which is probably more a testament to the efficiency of the insulation than the output of the stove! We’re getting around inside wearing just a t-shirt and jeans. Jan has decided to try and cook on the stove. Her idea is to use it for soups and casseroles but in order to do that she wants a large (20cm diameter) pot with a single long handle. She’s still searching (via google) for the pot but decided today she wanted to attempt to cook a steamed pudding on the stove. Yummm my favourite… so of course I volunteered to assist. Jan already has a trivet which I placed on top of the stove hotplate using her oven mitten.
Trivet on the hotplate
Next the pot went on top of the trivet
Unfortunately the trivet is too big which resulted in the pot being on an angle. I suggested to Jan she didn’t need the trivet to cook the steamed pudding as the pot also had small trivet inside it and was full of water. This meant there would be little chance of the pudding burning (smart thinking on my part….. I’ll do almost anything for a steamed pudding!). So I removed the pot and then used a fork to lift the trivet off the hotplate. The pot was then placed on the hotplate and shortly thereafter started to merrily bubble away. My stomach is already starting to grumble! However we will require a trivet between the base of a pot and the hotplate for soups and casseroles so Jan still has some searching to do!
The last construction task for the day was to wire and connect the second 12v socket in the top of the media cabinet. Until today the single working 12v socket has been supplying power to both the network media tank (NMT) and satellite receiver. They can now have separate power supply sockets.
Now the NMT has a stable power supply I’ve retuned it (it has two terrestrial TV tuners) and set up the record schedule based on the selections made by Jan. Silly me did it all manually because Australian commercial TV channels don’t like to provide EPG data. It wasn’t until after I’d done everything manually that I realised it was possible to just click on the desired programmes using the EPG! Another lesson learned……..
Tomorrow Jan is going on another foraging expedition……. to Sainsbury’s 
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