#dishwashergate and other bits

Whilst in Gosport, a perfectly natural reaction is to try and escape. So, we took the excellent cycle path up to Fareham and also to Lee-on-Solent. Some nice views heading there:

and even some intrepid paddleboarding types:

All most civilised until whilst sitting on the sea front having a coffee we were accosted by two elderly and clearly lonely gentlemen who used the Brompton bikes as an excuse to start a conversation. We must look way friendlier than we are. On the way back, into the teeth of the F6 wind, we were happy to have some electric assistance.

A walk around Gosport (brave we know) let us meet a proper Gosport lady - wandering along the High Street, clutching an open can of Special Brew. So good to be here again, we fit in so well. Enough fun though, some pain was needed. First of all we fitted the new stainless steel tap into the aft cockpit sink:

after all the earlier amusement of moving the mounting hole a centimetre or so inwards to give enough space for the retaining nut.

Then it got serious. We've mentioned before how the Miele dishwasher had started to misbehave, needing some persuading each time for the pump to work and sometimes stopping before the rinse and drying part of the cycle. A little inconvenient and feedback from other Nordhavn owners with the same machine suggested that it was a common fault as they age. We guess that 14 isn't a bad age for a dishwasher with 12 years of heavy use. 

The big challenge is replacing it. Mainly because when the boat was being commissioned in the UK, a water based heating / aircon system was fitted by the Keto guys on the Hamble and they installed an air handler right on top of the plumbing for the dishwasher with pipework that does not allow it to be moved out of the way. Hence the swap was going to be another of those "interesting" jobs that needed several plumbing changes to both the heating system and the dishwasher pipework. Luckily for us, but not for him, Biscuit the ex Nordhavn Europe man had completed this job before on other 47s and is the closest to an expert that you would ever find. The old machine sat looking rather sad and doomed:

awaiting its fate.

A nice new Bosch machine was delivered to Biscuit's house (and he didn't just keep it and eBay it, honest sort of chap) ready for the fun to start. 

Luckily, our air handler was not in the worst possible position for access to the dishwasher pipework:

One unexpected discovery was that the little Seagull water filter not only feeds the dedicated faucet and the ice maker in the freezer - it had been plumbed into the dishwasher cold feed too. Poor little cartridge! Whist the plumbing was exposed, a new filter cartridge was fitted (it was due) and some prep work for fitting isolating valves to help with any future replacement or to stop leaks.:

The new dishwasher looks rather "modern" in comparison to the old one:

Internet linked - oh yes in a 50 foot boat you really need a message to say the program has completed.

As is normal with boats, you take one step forward and one back (or on a good day sideways). The small Webasto boiler had been getting more and more reluctant to fire up and so the time had come to send it to the nice folks at Butler Technik for a check and overhaul. Hopefully just a decoke but as it is elderly and has never been touched we thought that it should go to someone who knows about such things rather than be ripped apart by us. It lives happily in one of the engine room alcoves with the freshwater pumps:

and the area looked a little bare after taking it out:

You can spot the new isolation valve added to the coolant hose to help with future removal - this time we had to drain quite a lot of the system. The boiler was boxed up and shipped off to the experts.

Then it all went a bit social. We met up with Paula and Nigel for an outside lunch, then Anne and Izzy for the same. After months of seeing nobody and eating on board it seemed very strange, almost normal again really. Bar the masks. And sitting outside a perfectly serviceable restaurant in the freezing cold when it had perfectly functional inside tables.