Enoying sunny Stornoway

Oh yes, the sun was out and the sky showed some of that blue shade that has been missing for several days. Unfortunately nothing the weather could do would make this rather sad looking fishing boat better:

The local fleet ranged from sad and decaying to amazingly tidy, tending to the former though. We felt very safe here, the view forwards had a reassuring orange and blue thing in it:

and to celebrate arriving on this lovely island, getting some sun and the fact that it was only the end of May, we treated ourselves to a summery gin and tonic in the pilothouse, enjoying the views:

We washed the salt off the hull, topped up the water tank, had a most interesting chat with the lifeboat mechanic (learned more than we ever expected to know about Severn class lifeboats and the life extension process) and generally enjoyed the sunny town especially as it was now liner free. The decision to rent a little van or car was an easy one, knowing there was plenty to go and explore. Simple process here, you ring Mackinnon (the cheapest one), say you want something from next Monday, give them a rough time and a name. Nothing more. So simple.

After our chat with the lifeboat mechanic, we got to watch them leave on a real "shout" too. Here is the friendly mechanic who likes Nordhavns casting off the serious mooring line from the bow of the lifeboat:

and now the rest of the crew doing the same thing:

then heading out to the rescue:

Nice and smoky, way more than our little John Deere based main engine. There again we are not packing two 1,600HP MTU engines. Interestingly they hold the same amount of diesel as us, they just burn it rather faster.

To get the legs working, we walked around to Lews Castle, a recently restored building with an interesting history having been built using profits from the opium trade. Look at Wikipedia link  and also follow the link to read about the guy who had it built, Sir James Matheson. It sits in a lovely parkland area:

and enjoys views of the harbour entrance:

Several shopping trips to top up from the last Tesco we will see in a while, a rather good local butcher and a Hebridean jewellery shop for the crew kept us busy. A disturbed night's sleep was had when the lifeboat had another shout, leaving around 11:00pm and coming back well after 3am. 

The whole experience of popping into shops here is so much more pleasureable than normal. Folks are helpful, friendly (even the SNP supporters) and have time for you. It transports you back in time rather wonderfully. As did a bike ride out past the airport to Knock. A coffee shop was shown on google maps and was shown to be open too. Only when we get there it was a convenience store  that was having the coffee bit built and it was not finished yet. Never mind, the views on the ride made up for it:

The road passes the end of the runway too - no proper security at all but we guess that there are few incidents to disturb the 4 flights a day. We witnessed the airport vehicle driving along the runway to scare off the birds before this little plane took off as the wildlife had enjoyed 4 hours undisturbed use of the tarmac:

The local drivers are very considerate towards cyclists. On the one section of road that we had to use (paths everywhere else), any passing traffic waiting for a nice big gap then pulled well clear of us by driving on the opposite side of the white line. It felt quite strange really after Penarth / Cardiff traffic.

The Bromptons had another excursion to the war memorial - a most impressive tower on a hill overlooking Stornoway and the local area:

As you can see, they lined up properly to pay their respects. The island(s) had a huge percentage loss of life during WWI, culminating in the loss of the Iolair that was bringing naval reservists home for Xmas after the end of the war - see  Iolaire sinking. 

Maintenance news:

For some time, the hoses that go from the gearbox to the oil cooler have started to look a bit "cooked and brittle". Replacement was well overdue and in the Kyle we noticed some ominous stains suggesting that the reinforcement was corroding too.  So, the two offending items were removed (fun job, at least gearbox oil is clean stuff) and sure enough when they were given a good bend, the outer casing in an area normally hidden by other hoses started to split a little. They were well and truly dead and had to go:

The old hoses were taken to the Fishermen's Co-operative in town. An amazing place that makes the average leisure boat chandlery look like an expensive clothes store. Proper tools, equipment, lubricants etc etc. They are the source for the local fishing fleet and have an amazing breadth of stock. We knew that they make up hydraulic hoses on site and the helpful guy took the captain into the workshop where we found the right fittings and made up the two new hoses. A rough guess suggests that the £34 they charged is about 50% of what they would have cost back in Cardiff.

Here is the fitting next to the gearbox oil filter waiting for the new hose:

together with some oil absorbent pad collecting the drips. The metal bracket holds the gear sensor used by the stabilisers. If they are "active" and you shift into reverse, this sensor tells the stabiliser system to centre the fins.

The new hoses were fitted:

and the engine run to test for leaks, just in case. A little oil top up to replace what was lost swapping out the pipes was needed and then the end fittings were protected from corrosion using some Denso tape:

Happy to have that job completed. We also checked the hydraulic hoses for the stabiliser system but they were all fine, having a higher pressure but lower temperature life - and probably being better quality to start with too. 

The captain had an unpleasant surprise when checking the lazarette area  - there was some soot underneath the heating boiler. There had been none until we gave the system a run during our stay in the Kyle of Lochalsh. It was operated there for two reasons, one to give it the recommended monthly "fire up" and two, because it was cold! 

Upon checking it was clear that the exhaust hose (flexible stainless steel stuff with lagging on it) had failed close to where it is fitted to the heating boiler. This bit of exhaust hose is only just two years old and had rotted through:

This is the piece that came off with the clamp that held it to the boiler still in place.

Luckily we had a spare clamp (they don't work as well after being cooked!) and when the failed section of exhaust was cut off, there was still enough hose left to refit it to the boiler. The system ran OK and there were no more leaks but we will need to renew that section of pipework before the winter. We know that as "almost live-aboards" the boiler has lots of use each winter but only getting two years use out of genuine Webasto hose is a bit disappointing. Maybe we need to buy some Chinese knock off stuff and see how it lasts!

l