Small Jobs

It seems today was “small jobs” day.  I returned to Waiouru jumping and bounding into the air after my £5 for retiree haircut and set to work on the interior and exterior chrome.  We chose chrome over brass after a first career involving polishing brass and picking up other peoples butts.  Now I find the chrome gets tarnished.  Fortunately it only needs cleaning once annually.  Whilst doing that I noticed the heads of securing screws on one of the safety compliance plates had started to rust.  They were removed and cleaned with emery paper before re-installation.  The remote on the weather station had stopped working.  Jan replaced the batteries on the remote in the cratch but it wouldn’t communicate with the main station in the saloon.  The instructions have long gone (chinese weather station) and there’s no brand name on the weather station.  I searched Google Images and found a similar looking station and then googled for some instructions.  These instructions stated the ‘CF’ button had to be pressed and held for two seconds.  Voila….  That fixed the problem!  I’ve now downloaded the instructions in case we have the same problem in two years time.  I can see the paintwork in the cratch is very damp and needs to be cleaned and dried.  Perhaps if I rest it will go away.

I dug down through yesterday’s clothes (today’s rags) in the port stern locker to check the water levels in the Hurricane header tank and the reservoir for the domestic battery automatic watering system.  The former was OK, but the latter required topping up. 

The Refleks stove probably needed a clean so I removed the cylindrical mesh grill and squeezed my hand and wrist all the way down to the base with a damp paper towel.  This then collected all the carbon and a small amount of ash which is the residue from the fire lighters.  The only problem cleaning the stove is the sharp edges on the cylindrical baffles always cut my hand and I rotate it to clean the bowl.  Once it was reassembled and running I tossed in a Rubboy cleaning tablet which appears to remove all the carbon from the top of the burning chamber and the flue.  Fortunately the stove only needs to be cleaned every 5-8 weeks.  So pleased we don’t have a solid fuel stove.

Meanwhile Jan has been shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic the last of the funds in the bank in an effort to defer starvation.  I needed Jan to give me an advance on my monthly pocket money to pay for the haircut.  She wanted to know what I’d done with the last  £20 note.  It’s so long ago that I can’t remember….. but I’m sure it must have been used to buy something critical.

Just over a fortnight ago we cruised through ice on the surface of the canal.  I hadn’t intended to break through ice because it can take the blacking off the steel hull at the water line. 

Unlike the boat in the photo, we appear to have avoided any damage to our two pack epoxy blacking.

Three boats have passed today.  One was very familiar.  It’s been from A to B to C and was on it’s way back to A.  Not a cruising pattern that suits me.  I’d get very bored!  I’m looking forward to the New Year, when we can be on our way.