Off in the mud then back to heating system fun

Ages ago, pre-Covid if you can remember that far back, we had booked an off road driving day with Land rover. Well, it finally happened.

We drove to Honiton via a brief stop in Bridgwater for lunch which was a strange place. One side of the river had lovely buildings and a few nice shops. The other was sadder than a sad thing and well behind the times. How far behind? Well, this car dealership sign just about summed it up:

Reliant cars stopped production around 2002!

Our off road day in the forest area around Honiton was excellent. Anne (Izzy the dog's owner) joined us and unlike before, the instructor could not travel in the car with us thanks to Covid so he was ahead in his own vehicle and linked by radio. Some of the specially constructed obstacles were fun. Here is the inclinometer built into the Defender showing a 27 degree tilt to the side:

and here is how it felt to the crew in the back seat:

Somehow it felt more than 27 degrees. Fun was also had on the "bumps" that allowed us to see just how the car would still progress with two wheels around a meter and a half off the ground. To help you appreciate what was happening they had rigged up a mirror and getting the car onto the balance point allowed the instructor to have some fun with the crew who was driving:

We were astonished with the capability of the Defender especially as it was on normal road tyres. We could drive up a forest track that was too steep for the instructor's discovery to conquer with ease thanks to the car and the electronics controlling wheelspin and grip. The same stuff got us down slowly and safely too. An amazing car and a great day.

After the mechanised fun, the crew needed another animal fix so it was off to the local donkey sanctuary - kind of a re-run of the visit to the Isle of Wight version. Some grown-ups just seem to struggle with the whole growing up concept:

A wander around West Bay and Beaminster concluded a most enjoyable weekend. No boating at all but.... 

Back in our "reality" afloat, we needed to give the rather neglected boat a run out so we did the usual trips up and down the Cardiff bay area, making our track look as boring as it is in reality:

However, the weather was kind:

gentle winds and no rain. Upon return to Penarth we headed for the fuel berth to splash some in to keep the generator and heating going over the winter. 1,400 litres later we berthed again, happy in the lucky timing because there was a new tanker delivery due the following day and of course the price would be going up.

Maintenance news:

All to do with the heating system again. From the last post you can figure out that the system had been misbehaving. A chat to Toby the expert guy from Keto who are based in the Hamble river gave us a hint that it could be the motor valve in the system playing up. This valve apparently defaults to the "air con" position when de-energised, circulating the coolant around the system and through the air con compressor:

Manually swapping the valve position seemed to enable the 24v "on" feed to the boiler and it duly fired up. Then the system ran perfectly all evening. Happy days. Well, not quite. Happy day maybe. The captain woke up early(ish) the following morning and suddenly heard the boiler firing up. The system was totally turned off but the boiler had a mind of its own. So, at stupid o'clock, the lazarette was unlocked and the captain used the physical switch on the boiler to turn it off.. Why did this happen? No clue at all. More investigation needed.