Pottering and preparing

What to do when back on board after a road trip? Well, plenty really. Apart from trying to catch up on maintenance / replacement work that needs to be done this winter, we tried to have some fun as well. Dinner at the Pilot one evening was in the fun category, with the lovely owners of a Nordhavn 86 based in the Mediterranean. Only a teeny bit bigger than our 47 as you can see from this MarineTraffic image:

The Pilot was raided once more for Sunday lunch with Nikki.  A proper happy making place.

We took the arms off the pilothouse helm seat as they were getting very worn and dropped them into Wayne the trimmer for recovering.  Our flybridge has one large seat behind the two individual chairs for the helm and lookout. It has always been a pian - the seat cushion and backrest are both made in one piece. They are huge and hard to store in the winter, plus the foam isn't the most comfortable either and the vinyl is showing signs of age. So, we squeezed them into the car and took them to the lovely ladies in Bristol at the Bristol caravan and boat seat cover centre. The plan is to get them replaced, this time halved and in a nicer outdoor fabric rather than vinyl, with a way better foam sandwich inside.

Since the boat hadn't had a run following our return from Dun Laoghaire we felt it was time. We had a choice of very windy days, wet and windy days or a simple windy or wet day. We opted for a slightly soggy calm day and did the regulation if slightly tedious, run around the bay:

Getting the navigation gear going, warming up the wing engine and giving the main a good hard run too. We love having the sheltered water of the bay available for trips out during the winter, runs in the RIB etc. An ideal area. 

We were glad that we'd completed our little trip before this lot arrived:

and in case you think that is just for the offshore areas and that the Bristol Channel would be sheltered:

It isn't often that you see am inshore waters forecast saying "decreasing to severe gale force 9".  Mind you, the sea state in the English Channel was going to be worse, here is the forecast for the Portland / Channel Islands area:

Sea state of very high means 9 to 14 metre high waves. Almost as high as we are long.  With no desire to leave the berth either under power or because we had broken free, we simply added a couple of fenders and checked that all our lines and covers were secured, ready to ride it out. Sure enough, a grim day but not quite as blowy as the forecast - Penarth is pretty sheltered really. Rain - oh yes, plenty of that. A good job that we took the boat out earlier on as there will be loads of timber coming down the rivers into the bay. 

So, in preparation for heading somewhere warmer and hopefully less soggy, we gave the bikes a clean and lube, then packed them away. They are joining us on our upcoming travels.

Maintenance News:

When we returned with our untouched heating boiler, it had to be refitted into the little hiding place in the lazarettte so we could keep warm. That went relatively well, here it is back in situ:

and we await news that the test harness has finally arrived at Butler Technik. No idea when we will remove it again. Amazingly, the thing fired up first time, no trouble getting fuel into the pump and burner. Bleeding air out of the coolant loop around the air handlers took a bit longer.

Microwavegate was calling. If you remember, our built in device failed when we were in South Uist, not an ideal place to find a replacement. We had bought a free standing microwave in Stornoway that was annoying the crew a lot. So, we took the old failed unit out of the cabinetry and measured up the space available. Typically, the cabinet isn't "normal kitchen unit"  sized so you are very restricted in which makes you can buy. The crew was very happy that a Miele offering was the perfect size. The Captain and our bank manager were less impressed. So, one was duly ordered and of course the fittings to hold it in place were different to the failed Miele (8 years old) which had also been different to the original which failed after 9  years of pretty heavy use.

The new fittings were duly installed and the new device went in amazingly easily compared to the struggles we had with the last one: Naturally the fascia was a different size so the beading trim around it has some big gaps at the corners now. We can live with that, getting new beading to match the cabinets would be hard:

A happy crew again and a smart new microwave, Only confusing bit is that they have swapped the positions of the start and stop buttons. Why??.

What else did we do? Well, the Yamaha outboard on the RIB had a run, then fresh oil put in for the winter. The engine room fans were corrosion protected and we treated the bikes to a long overdue clean and chain lube session, together with some fresh sealant in the tubeless tyres  The main engine shaft stuffing box was nipped up a bit after the run around the bay as it was  dripping more than necessary. All in all we were pretty busy but had ticked a few items off the to do list which felt good.

Road trip time

After lots of boat trips, we had a road trip arranged. It felt as though we were becoming almost normal, joining all the "dirt dwellers" and doing the kind of things they do. It made a nice change really. Our plan was to head off on a Sunday and stay just outside Lincoln ready to drop the heating boiler into the Butler Technik folks. Only we then discovered that the Cardiff half marathon was on and the road through the marina would be closed for hours. Perfect timing on our part, booking to leave that day:

They suggested that the road would be open from noon but past experience was that the time dragged on as the back marker runners passed through Penarth. So, we took advantage of a voucher we had and left a day earlier, stopping at the rather swish Celtic Manor hotel initially. By the way, for a posh 5 star hotel the breakfast service is pretty dire. The drive from Newport up to Lincoln was relatively easy, perhaps the wild fuel prices had kept some traffic off the roads? The only wildly busy bit was battling through the car park at Costco in Leicester to get to the fuel pumps. Chaos.

We had booked a late Sunday lunch at a pub near Lincoln which got very good reviews, the Thorold Arms:

Amazingly, we found a parking spot outside it and were greeted at the entrance by "mine host" who happened to be taking an order from folks on an outside table. The salmon trousers and blue shirt thing was a giveaway.  He was very friendly and the menu choice for the day was not the typical Sunday roast fare. The crew fancied the Venison with some most inventive side dishes but when she ordered she was told that venison was a typo and it should have said pigeon. Er?? Undaunted, she ordered and really enjoyed it. Very good food, good service and a most entertaining clientele - the local gentry expressing themselves loudly about their travel plans etc. We felt rather out of place as dodgy boat-dwellers.

The following morning we dropped the Webasto boiler into the engineering folks and drove up to the Hamsterley Mill area to see our friends, John and Irene. We hear the cries of "where is Hamsterley Mill" echoing around. Well, you could search for it on the internet but to save you the effort, it is near Rowlands Gill. See how helpful we are.  

John and Irene have taken on a rescue dog, the rather lovely Millie:

and no, she does not have a multicoloured perm, just a toy strategically positioned. We took her a new toy as well, which was soon pressed into service and gummed happily:

All the extremities seemed to survive though, she is very gentle with her things. During our stay we ate them out of house and home, visited Hexham for a riverside walk and lunch, walked some of the Derwent Way and had a trip to Blanchford. That is one pretty little village and home to many interesting buildings:

plus the Lord Crewe Arms hotel. We forced ourselves to a coffee stop there and had a very enlightening chat with a farmer from Stamford who was staying overnight. Renting out a field to dog walkers makes way way more profit than growing any crops and at negligible risk too. Strange world that we inhabit. 

The crew helped our last day go well by giving Mollie a brush. As you can see, she rather enjoys that attention:

unlike Izzy who needs to be bribed to put up with it for long.

After a great time "up north" we headed a little further south - to Hessle near Hull. We were off to stay with Bernie and Beau the dog. You've met them in many prior blog posts but haven't learned about Bernie's home - a converted stable block that starred in a TV renovation project. Bernie wanted to keep as much of the character of the stables as possible and use reclaimed materials so go and watch the channel 4 program, it is well worth it. You can find it here  https://www.channel4.com/programmes/george-clarkes-remarkable-renovations/on-demand/68219-006.

Grab a coffee and see just what you can do with vision and determination - also see where we stayed.

Bernie gave us a guided walking tour of Old Hull, after a stop off at a garage he owns where we peeked at a Riva Rudy that is nearly ready to relaunch and use. If you are not a boating person, Riva might not mean much. Think "La Dolce Vita", elegant Italians enjoying speeding across Lake Como etc etc. Here is one underway:

courtesy of a huge Yank V8 petrol engine. The interiors are simply an elegant 1970's time capsule:

and yes, Bernie's boat looks like that. Simply gorgeous but functional too. His other boat in Hull lives afloat in the marina and if you are sad enough to have been reading our ramblings over the years, you might recall prior images of Mimosa, the Dunkirk little ship:

She looked, and is, rather splendid. 

After a busy and enjoyable day and overnight with Bernie, we walked Beau the little Coton de Tulear (in the rain) then headed south once more. Annoyingly, this was via Butler Technik to collect our heater. Why annoyingly? Well, they didn't have the test harness needed to check out the device properly after a decoke and internal check. Instead of the normal 48 hour delivery from Webasto, this was being quoted as two weeks at least. We didn't want to be back afloat with no heating so we collected the untouched boiler and will wait for a call to say they have the required harness. The workshop guys were very apologetic. The Captain just thought of more boat yoga to refit it, then remove it again for servicing then refit it again. That made him very happy indeed.

We overnighted outside Coventry, finding that the hotel car park was rather busy for a Friday. Then we discovered why:

A face and body painting event. You can imagine some of the sights walking around the hotel. We had a quick shared pizza and retired. You can only admire so many pink attired and painted folks in one evening and we got out quota well before the shared pizza arrived. One very strange event.

We escaped the carnage the following morning and on the way south stopped off at the British motor museum. Only it was carnage there as well. An event to celebrate 30 years of the Porsche boxster was taking place:

Lots of cars outside, lots of people of a certain age and type wearing Porsche club hats and identity badge lanyards, all sporting the requisite Porsche Motorsport clothing. We escaped one crowd for another. It did occur to us that there might be a slight hierarchy in the Porsche club with 911 owners looking down on the boxster lot. There were no 911s visible in the car park.

Despite how busy it was we enjoyed the museum, the captain a touch more than the crew perhaps. A great place and still plenty more for us to see:

However, it is worrying when the model of car you learned to drive on is exhibited in a museum:

No, not the offerings on the right, he isn't that ancient. Yes, the captain cut his teeth and ground the gears on his uncle's Anglia 105e. No synchromesh on first is his excuse and forced you to learn the art of double-declutching. The Anglia ws pretty elderly at the time and had the regulation Isopon and newspaper replacements for what were once steel sills that had rotted away Structural integrity in a crash - let's not think about that.

A good few days on the road except that some nice person decided to run a key down the side of the car when it was parked against a grass verge so safe from the careless door opening lot at Scotch Corner services. Words fail, although they didn't when we saw it.