Amber nectar for a stiff neck

The highlight of the day was……

Better than coke or orange juice!  Jan had the alcoholic ginger beer! We were rather disappointed with the Sunday roast lunch at The Bull.  The portion was very small (one slice of roast beef) and we left hungry vowing not to return.

I should have taken a photo of the engine bay before starting the clean-up yesterday morning.  The following two photo’s show the port side and stern.  They were in better condition than the starboard side.

I’ve already cleaned the top of the uxter plate and applied one coat of Hammerite.

It’s going to be an interesting task trying to reach the bilge.  My plan is to fix the port and starboard sides of the engine.  I’ll then attempt to squat beside the engine and reach into the bilge with the wire brush.  I’m not that worried about the area under the engine because it is covered with absorbent mats.

The next photo is the starboard side after the first coat of Hammerite was applied yesterday.

This morning this area received a second coat.  I’ll check the coverage tomorrow and decide whether a third coat is required.  There was now no where to stand in the engine compartment so I moved on to another task. 

We have a spare (guests) double bed in the rear cabin.  It converts from a single to a double by fitting four extension pieces.  Usually our visitors only stay for a few days and we have never noticed any problems.  However one son has been on the boat with Jan for several months and recently they noticed the underside of the mattress extension was damp.  It was obvious that the solid extension pieces are acting as a moisture barrier.  The plan is to drill holes in the extension pieces thus allowing the mattress to breath.

I marked out the top of the first extension piece in a 50x50mm pattern and then drilled pilot holes.  The final holes are going to be drilled using an 18mm ‘spade’ bit.  Because the far side of the timber tends to splinter when the spade bit punches through it I partially drilled one side first.

You can see the small pilot holes on the left and the beginning of the 18mmholes in the middle and right.  The battery on the drill had gone flat at this point.  Once it had recharged I finished partially drilling the holes on this side and then turned the board over.  The spade bit then followed the line of the pilot holes making a clean hole on both sides of the board.  I just need to take the sharp edge off the holes and give the bare timber a coat of varnish.