Christmas in lockdown

Like many folks on the planet, we enjoyed a locked down festive season, ate and drank too much and sneaked out during the nicer weather for some exercise. The highlight was an Xmas morning walk around the local country park, in the sun, seeing Steve and Bron the spaniel there too. Yup - we did try to warn you that this was not going to be a tale of wild parties and drug induced fun.

Over the Xmas period we had to say farewell to a faithful servant. One that we inherited too. When we bought the boat a Bodum kettle was left on board and it has finally given up with bits of black coming off the element and into your tea. We said a fond and sad farewell after nearly 12 years of service to what has been a galley feature from day 1:

As you can see, we gave up trying to keep the stupid black finish clean and free from water stains ages ago. However, this equipment failure continued the "nothing is ever simple" game because it used a continental two pin plug. Hence we had one pair of sockets in the galley with the original continental style fittings in them:

Replacing that with two UK style sockets is no fun as the originals have two nice terminals on each pin, allowing you to put a bridging wire over to the second socket to feed it power:

Of course the UK version does not, so you have to try to cram two 50 amp cables into one little hole which is not keen on such a violation. Some bad words ensued but it was beaten into submission:

The crooked fit of the electrical bit into the wooden surround is original by the way, before anyone starts commenting on it.... The captain might have a go at straightening it one day but the aesthetics of a plug socket in the hidden corner of the galley come low down on the to-do list.

Xmas itself brought some nice presents from Anne and Izzy. The captain was especially happy with this one:

and the crew loves the new tea towel which is so so apt:

Izzy must have modeled for it. 

Nikki, the master baker (somehow mistress baker sounds very wrong on many levels) had provided some typically continental home-made biscuits too:

They took quite a beating, being so good..

After all that fun, some domestic bliss was needed so the genset got a workout:

running the washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, immersion heater and oven. For those that are interested, it can produce up to 52 amps so it had its own version of a full workout that day.

Post Xmas things went back into lockdown routine with the highlight being collecting shopping from the nearby Asda again. Things on the boat to-do list got parked until the new year thinking that we are in for several more weeks of lockdown and so we can amuse ourselves with them in the run up to Easter when, hopefully, more jabs will have been administered and people are not being so stupid in their behaviour. Pigs might fly.

And then it was nearly Xmas and we had a little landslide

Back in Penarth we "enjoyed" some windy weather which rather interfered with the fur on Izzy's nose:

Despite this, walks and ball fun were enjoyed before Izzy's long holiday with us came to an end.  The Welsh Covid numbers were growing steadily and going anywhere that was busy was not at all tempting. So, we went into "lockdown" mode again, before the Welsh government imposed it, and contented ourselves with click and collect food shopping, on-line orders for anything we needed and generally keeping ourselves to ourselves. A handy excuse for anti-social types like us really.

Maintenance news:

A local engineering shop made up a couple of sturdy stainless steel brackets for us, so we could fit the new extractor fans in the engine room. For those of you sad enough to have read about it and even worse, to remember, the replacements had a different body to the originals so the old brackets were no use.

After some "interesting" antics, the two fans are now properly fitted and are unlikely to become loose or break away in a storm. It is equally unlikely that we will be out in a storm of course. Here is the one that blows air up the exhaust stack to keep it cool as it  passes through the galley cabinetry:

The most annoying thing is that because you are screwing into perforated metal, the screws like to go in at funny angles making it look messy. They get a great grip though!

This little bracket was fun to fit - hidden in a locker area.:

It involved plenty of full stretch holding up a heavy bracket, screwdriver and then a heavy fan. The captain earned a post work gin that day. On other days he has less of an excuse.

On the crew's birthday we had one of "those" phone calls. Hugh from the marina called to say that there had been a landslip above the marina car park and that we ought to move our car. Naturally it had happened after a day of torrential rain and high winds. So, togged up the brave captain headed out. The "landslip" description was quite understated, here are some pictures from the next morning:

Had there been a car parked on the other side it would now be written off. The ones opposite looked a bit hemmed in:

and the rather nice Porsche looked a bit sad:

Apparently the Porsche and the van next door are owned by the same guy who they could not contact as the number he had left with the Marina office didn't work. He is in for a nasty shock. We were so lucky - our car was parked about 15 metres away and escaped any damage. There were trees left up in the air that had been uprooted by the landslip and were just held in place by other trees which still had their roots into the cliff and were holding. The captain happily drove out of the car park (luckily we were on the exit side of where the trees had fallen) and found a new spot well out of the way.

We later learned that the offending big tree had been earmarked by the council for some attention by the tree surgeons during the year but nothing was done because of Covid safe working rules. OK, call us cynics but working outdoors lopping chunks off trees from a cherry picker is unsafe yet 10 guys refurbishing the interior of the burnt out restaurant opposite was safe? Perhaps that is because one job was being done by private sector employees who would have been furloughed if they had no work and the trees are "looked after" by council employees who are safer than a safe thing in their positions? Well, the council will have a nice big damage claim on their hands soon - Porsche body repairs do not come cheap. 

The boxing day forecast is for more heavy rain and then even stronger gales. We wonder how much more of the cliff will come down then.