A trashed boat, once more

The original B&O entertainment system had become less and less entertaining over time. Still, it had managed rather longer than many bits of comparable kit these days. The TV sets were analogue with digiboxes in front of them. The sat dome and digibox combination would not allow HD channels to be viewed and as the BBC moved all their Freesat offerings to HD, they vanished from our world. So, the time had come to go big and replace things. The plan was to fit some new smart TV sets, new innards to the sat dome, an external 5/5G/WiFi booster aerial, a new terrestrial TV aerial and various tekkie bits to link it all. 

We said a dusty goodbye to the big B&O black box that controlled the system before, with its miles of Scart cabling:

 A similar farewell for the failing original sat dome:

and the old TV kit too:

Paul from Maricom was the main man for the many wiring changes needed and managed to pull the boat apart once more with wires hanging in profusion from every panel - or so it seemed:

We were very glad that we were not involved in replacing the sat dome innards:

as it meant sitting on the top of the stack manhandling the rather heavy equipment. Oh, it also involved sitting on bits of GRP that have not been properly cleaned for ages and might just have a hint of green goo and bird poo on them. We offered a restorative coffee to Paul when he returned to earth, with chocolate biscuits of course. Installing a router and pulling cables to the three new TV sets for nice wired internet access was an amusing job. 

We opted to replace the sat dome workings rather than rely on pure 4/5G connections as we are relatively often out of mobile signal range when travelling. We kind of like the Freesat radio / TV to accompany us especially during the small hours of the morning when staying awake gets harder alone on watch. 

Whilst the mayhem on-board continued, we had a few diversions. Paul was called to a brief sea trial on the new Nordhavn 68 "High Fidelity" which is quite a bit of kit. Here she is returning from the little excursion, just before she left with a delivery skipper on board for Dun Laoghaire. Not sure why you would put such a  lovely boat in such a sad marina and town we must admit. However, there is always lots of space there!

One new boat being prepared was quite amazing in a "er what" sort of way:

Gambit was far from huge and sported 4 x 450 HP outboard engines. There is a big "why" question attached to the whole thing. Mad speeds in flat water, interesting ride in bumpy stuff, wild fuel consumption etc. Not our cup of tea but we hope the new owner enjoys it and has a block booking at their osteopath together with shares in an oil company.

On a more sedate topic, Anne popped over to say hi with a boot load of paws and cuddles:

They looked rather different after a run along the muddy river bank at low tide.....

Maintenance news - but for Lady Grey this time:

Alex and Gisele on Lady Grey, the Nordhavn 55 who were berthed close by had a moment. Gisele came on board and remarkably calmly said that there was smoke and a burning smell on board her boat. The captain went over, followed by Paul from Maricom to discover a failing AC panel meter that had overheated badly and was busy burning itself up. The captain disconnected it and the case was so distorted by the heat that it had to be broken up a bit to slide out of the oblong slot in the panel:

A very nasty situation and another good reason to replace the original old technology meters with the new stuff designed by Neil, another Nordhavn owner. Since his AC meter solution was not fully in production yet, Alex procured a replacement meter but of the original type from the Nordhavn Europe folks who luckily had it in stock. The captain fitted it, needing to replace the plug on the wiring loom as it had been cooked too. A few hours later and Lady Grey could depart for Cowes, with only a lingering aroma to remind them of the fun earlier on that day.