A couple of little excursions and maintenance frustrations

Settling back into Penarth life seemed pretty easy really. The bikes were pressed into action again and several trips (on the unexpectedly dry days) around the area followed. One of the favourite spots is through the city and out to Pontcanna. Nice trip, 95% on cycle tracks too. Oh, it also finishes up at a nice Coffee #1 place too:

Must have been cycling into the wind heading there as the coffee seems to be intact but the pastry has taken a pasting..... The area really is good for cycle paths and routes along the rivers. Ideal, at least on nicer weather days.

A little escape followed, three nights in the rather lovely Aberllynfi B and B  (see https://www.aberllynfi.house/ )  which we have stayed in before. A very Covid secure operation too. Whilst there, we wandered around Hay-on-Wye and found this in a window:

Seemed like such a quiet place to have a "BLM" debate going on. Further excursions to Ludlow and then Hereford with the lovely buildings followed:

A good break in a beautiful part of the country. Back in Penarth, we resumed the bike exercise knowing that a few days of truly grim weather were forecast. The new Pret a Manger next to Cardiff central station was a handy stopping off spot although this time the crew was not keen on having her likeness taken:

We were truly horrified at the number of people spilling out from the station and heading into the city. Seeing bouncers on the doors of pubs (including Wetherspoons) at 11am was not edifying or, perhaps, contributing to an improvement in the local Covid infection rate.

As the dentist was beckoning and we needed to be around the Hythe area for that, we took advantage of the trip back to Hampshire and spent some time on the Isle of Wight, invading Tina's life for a weekend. Owing to a horrid miscalculation (we have no kids and so half term dates are not often in our minds) the ferry over was manically busy:

Having somehow survived the madness known as a Red Funnel ferry, things got way better. The crew was in a happy place:

visiting the Isle of Wight donkey sanctuary with 118 different donkeys to admire / pet / mark off on the sheet she is clutching. Somehow she resisted the "donkey twitcher" approach and we left before seeing all of them. Quite fortunate really or we might still be there hunting for the slightly shy inmates.

Walks around the coast at Bonchurch, an excellent lunch at the Albert Cottage in East Cowes and generally catching up kept us very happy indeed.

Maintenance News:

Sometime ago, when using the electric pump to empty the black water tank, we noticed a little weep from the manual pump that is in the same outlet line as a backup in case the electric one fails. Only this time, it was the manual one that was giving trouble. 

An overhaul kit was procured and then we had the fun of dismantling the pump, trying to ignore the odours and interesting sludge that accumulates inside it. The rebuild was totally unsuccessful as the case seemed to have been butchered before with one of the screws that holds the casing together having been re-drilled for an unknown / unfathomable reason. The gloop that someone had used to seal it was no longer working and the damage to the case meant there were three options. Either bodge it again, replace the entire pump or just bypass it and rely on the electric one or shore pump out stations. The third option won and the captain measured up for a nice stainless steel piece of tube to bridge the hoses. That way an new manual pump could always be refitted if needed pretty quickly (if messily).

Here is the offending article:

Many bad words might have been used about it and the bodger who messed up the casing during the first couple of years of the boat's life.....