Fixing stuff, visiting and waiting for some decent weather

Guess what - we had a sunny day! That had to be taken advantage of so we headed to Barrybados (aka Barry Island) so Izzy the dog could have yet more beach fun with her mate Moxie the labrador. Plenty of ball chasing ensued. There was one cameo moment  when both dogs hadn't seen which direction the ball went in so the crew and Nikki tried to help them with an unsubtle hint. It was funny to watch them point in unison - perfect  timing, totally unplanned:

Because the dentist wanted to excavate a couple of cracked teeth (one each) and add a half crown to them, we had a trip back to Hythe. Then we invaded Richard and Kim - the owners of the lovely yacht Millie who you've seen in here before. By the way, please be assured that Richard and Kim are lovely people, it is not just their yacht that is lovely.

They are busy upgrading a new to them yacht that spent her life on lake Windermere and so was short of a few seagoing essential items like a VHF radio, navigation gear etc etc. We took the doglet for a walk and ball fun on the beach at Southbourne and, of course, had to stop for human refreshments. Izzy is a good judge of both character and legs - she cuddled up to the legs that belonged to a former "Miss Pretty Polly" and enjoyed the whole experience greatly as you can see:

Our next stop was Weymouth, a chance to annoy Andrew and Linda the Nordhavn 43 owners. Again, a good walk and beach fun was had, enough to tire the dog who this time had to rely on the significantly less lovely leg of the captain:

Heading back to Penarth we bumped into an excellent coffee stop on the way - Jordans Courtyard link . There was an interesting gentleman's outfitter in the area too - read the nice little notice in the window, way better than "closed":

If in the area (near Ilminster) go and try the cafe. Maybe the cake too. 

Back afloat, life continued in the same manner as most of the past winter. A day of rain, a day of gales, then an overcast one. All rather depressing really. On another fine day we took the doglet to the beach at Barry once more for her final sand and ball fun before returning her home. It was an amazingly empty main beach considering the weather, it was almost as if folks had given up believing the forecast when it said "dry" for the rest of the day. 

Earlier we mentioned the Miss Pretty Polly title, awarded to Kim. Well this is the place that it was earned at::

only the Barry Island holiday camp has now become the housing estate you can see in the picture.

On the basis that all good things some to an end, we returned to Hythe, dumped the doglet with her owner and braved the dentist for the half crown fitting. Only that went a bit wrong - the dentist was not happy with the gapping to another tooth on the crown made for the captain so he was given another temporary filling and the dentist had a stern phone call with the lab that made it. A revisit is in our near future. It seems that anything we are trying to get done at the moment is far from simple (see the maintenance info below!)

Not having seen Tiny Tina for a while, we had a day trip to the Isle of Wight. Four buses and two ferry rides but the public transport worked out perfectly which amazed us really. A most civilised lunch with Tina and Steve followed at the Robert Thompson restaurant which is in a lovely old building right on the seafront. Have a look at weblink.

On the Red Funnel ferry from Southampton we witnessed another cracking bit of seamanship. A little Corvette motor cruiser was pottering down the main shipping channel - well inside it for no obvious reason. They seemed oblivious to the ferry chasing them and until the ferry altered course to head around and overtake them we are sure that hadn't seen or heard it. Their quick course alteration as the bow of the ferry drew alongside them was a strong hint that their watchkeeping was not great!

Maintenance News:

When we returned from our south coast travels and fired up the electrical systems, the gas alarm and on/off solenoid panel refused to wake up.  We prayed that it wasn't the panel as they are expensive and it would be very difficult to remove. Luckily we found that the 24v to 12v converter had packed up. It was a reasonably cheap Chinese thing that we fitted several years ago. So, it was replaced with a slightly less cheap Chinese one:

If that fails then maybe the time has come to buy a nice Victron device.

The amusement continued with a boat wash off and then one of those regular fun tasks - cleaning out the grey water tank. Such a nice aroma. Izzy the dog stayed well clear after the captain removed the tank sender unit to release the delicate smells contained within. The grey tank is now pristine and fragrant again - at least for a little while.

On a wet windy day (there were plenty), the heating system fuel filter was replaced but the current drinking water filter had a reprieve - the rain stopped so we walked the doglet. Meanwhile, we are looking at battery alternatives to replace the main engine start batteries that finally have failed (they were the original fit, dating from 2007) and the very nice and very capable trimmer guy doing our pilothouse headlinings has found that sourcing material thin enough to replace the original with a foam backing is hard in the UK. He is really struggling, having recovered the panels already before he realised that the material he used was too thick. He is now trying plan B. We think that plan C will be painting them white for this summer so the boat can be used!

Basically we need to get those back, swap the engine start batteries and then we are ready for the off. Well, once the captain has his temporary filling replaced and  the weather settles down a bit. Maybe July?

Visitors, more rain (of course) and a little light maintenance

Having delivered Dave the doggy doorstop to the Toddlers a while ago, we were horrified to hear from them that Dave had become Dora. We know that it is "modern" to allow children to choose their gender but letting a little stuffed doorstop dog do the same?  A worrying expansion of dog freedoms if you ask us. 

To make up for this disappointment, we collected the very female and very alive doglet Izzy for a stay:

She was joined by her human mum for a long weekend - Anne braved the train and probably never will again. Rammed full from Romsey to Cardiff on the way here and then a totally disrupted service on the way back with cancelled trains, altered routes and a way later arrival home than planned. Izzy was quite pleased that she had stayed with us.

Having a doglet in Penarth, it is compulsory to visit Barrybados of course, get a little of the Gavin and Stacey vibe and let the doglet have fun with her buddy Moxie in Barry old harbour at low tide:

The miserable weather curtailed another visit for several days unfortunately. Like the rest of the folks in the UK, we are hoping that the never-ending rain and wind will ease up sometime. However, it gave us an opportunity to do some well overdue work on the poor neglected boat.

Maintenance news:

Paul the Maricom man was brilliant. We dropped the satellite compass into his workshop one afternoon and by that evening he had soldered in a new battery and reset the configuration for us. So, it needed to be refitted. Again, Simon the surveyor man came to our rescue - the Captain should not be working above shoulder height with his right arm yet....  

Connectors replugged:

power supply being reconnected:

and the compass worked perfectly again - feeding data to all the devices it is talks to quite happily. One thing fixed.

We mentioned that it was a struggle getting the last chunk of the headlining out as the TV mount and TV were seemingly impossible to remove. Well, again Paul came to our rescue as he knew how the mount worked. One cut down allen key later, the TV and mounting bracket were removed:

 In the old days, the average TV has a power feed and an aerial connection. Nowadays:

The last headlining board was taken away by the trimmers and we hope to see them all returned and nicely refreshed soon. 

One challenge is that removing and refitting the overhead lights had caused trouble with the original Walter Cantalupi fittings. The metal casing likes to split and then the retaining springs dont work any more. Naturally they are no longer made so we sourced some LED replacements:

If anyone else has the same issue, these are what you need:

The only challenge is that our saloon, pilothouse and main heads areas have dimmer functions. The kit that does the dimming will not work with LED lights, just with the halogen originals. So, the new lights ended up in our cabin and the displaced ones became replacements elsewhere.

Ages ago, Martin (the owner of Malaspina the other N47 here) kindly brought a new exhaust elbow temperature sender for us from Canada. Way cheaper than buying one in the UK. Mad but... They now come with a fancy fixed connector which must fit to newer engines, not our old one. So, the lovely looking plug was cut off, a simple connector was crimped on and the sender was fitted to the wing engine and tested: 

As you see, it just screws into the exhaust elbow, looks insignificant and no way justifies the cost of the thing.

As the final bit of main engine maintenance needed, the fuel filters were changed and bled. Then, when the captain went to start the engine to make sure all was well, the starter gave a clunk and nothing else. Bad words ensued. The starter batteries had been on float charge from the inverters but as soon as they got any load, the voltage dropped like a stone. Paralleling them with the house bank, the engine happily fired up and ran. Time to replace the two engine start batteries - two as it is a 24v system. We cannot complain about them really, we knew that the day would come as they are the original 2007 kit. They have done extremely well! Two 4D AGM batteries needed and some tame gorillas to fit them (because they weigh 60Kg each). We will replace the wing / genset start batteries at the same time as they are also the originals. Amazing service from the original Lifeline batteries really.