After yesterday's successes, the first order of business today was breakfast at the new Club House in the marina.
There were no complaints from the Erbas crew, a decent full English and plenty of tea and coffee for a fiver each.
Back at the boat, I made up a solution of tank cleaner which we poured into the main water tanks before filling them with water. They'll be left to fester for the rest of the day.
Then Rik set off to attend a wedding whilst the rest of us, having measured up what was needed, headed to the chandlers to buy more bits.
Annoyingly, they hadn't got the one size of shackle we needed so it turned out to be a wasted trip. I decided not to buy the string for the new halyards either given that I can buy it for two thirds of the cost from my regular suppliers.
Back on board, we swapped the on loan Delta copy anchor for the original Bruce pending a further swap later for a smaller Delta. The over large anchor causes issues on the swinging mooring which we'll be back on at the end of the month.
With that done, and given that the time had flown by and it was now early afternoon, Glen and Mark departed for home leaving me all by myself.
It being a bit breezy for comfort on deck, and given that it involves dismantling the companionway steps, I decided now would be a good time to service the engine.
It having been a while since I did any work on engines, there was a certain amount of head scratching along the way and I wasn't rushing the exercise so it took me all afternoon to pump out the old oil, change all the filters and swap out the impeller on the water pump and the anode from the heat exchanger.
The impeller could probably have been left but they aren't expensive and I've got another spare so I thought better to swap it now than regret not doing so later.
The anode was well eaten so needed replacing. I decided not to dismantle and clean the heat exchanger tubes as I'm not convinced that it's really an annual job (there are two schools of thought and I favour servicing it at longer intervals unless overheating problems indicate otherwise).
I then flushed and cleaned the intake water strainer and checked the gearbox oil level (it'll be another 300 odd hours before that needs replacing.
With the engine filled with nice new oil or was time to fire it up and check for leaks. The only problem being that it wouldn't start. I bled the fuel lift pump, which I'd forgotten to do but couldn't get any fuel out of the bleed nipple.
I'd got diesel to the CAV filter and there's only a few inches of pipe from there to the pump but it simply wouldn't prime and get going. In the end I had to resort to pulling the pipe off the pump and sucking the fuel through.
Diesel tastes pretty foul but it got the job done and soon enough she was running sweetly and, to my delight, not a leak in sight.
It being gone six now, all I had time to do was tidy up the boat, dump the rubbish, have a wash and head for the pub for some grub. I debated eating on board, and probably should have done, but I really didn't feel like cooking for myself so pub grub was the order of the day.
Whether Rik will get back in time for a pint is looking dubious but we shall see!
There were no complaints from the Erbas crew, a decent full English and plenty of tea and coffee for a fiver each.
Back at the boat, I made up a solution of tank cleaner which we poured into the main water tanks before filling them with water. They'll be left to fester for the rest of the day.
Then Rik set off to attend a wedding whilst the rest of us, having measured up what was needed, headed to the chandlers to buy more bits.
Annoyingly, they hadn't got the one size of shackle we needed so it turned out to be a wasted trip. I decided not to buy the string for the new halyards either given that I can buy it for two thirds of the cost from my regular suppliers.
Back on board, we swapped the on loan Delta copy anchor for the original Bruce pending a further swap later for a smaller Delta. The over large anchor causes issues on the swinging mooring which we'll be back on at the end of the month.
With that done, and given that the time had flown by and it was now early afternoon, Glen and Mark departed for home leaving me all by myself.
It being a bit breezy for comfort on deck, and given that it involves dismantling the companionway steps, I decided now would be a good time to service the engine.
It having been a while since I did any work on engines, there was a certain amount of head scratching along the way and I wasn't rushing the exercise so it took me all afternoon to pump out the old oil, change all the filters and swap out the impeller on the water pump and the anode from the heat exchanger.
The impeller could probably have been left but they aren't expensive and I've got another spare so I thought better to swap it now than regret not doing so later.
The anode was well eaten so needed replacing. I decided not to dismantle and clean the heat exchanger tubes as I'm not convinced that it's really an annual job (there are two schools of thought and I favour servicing it at longer intervals unless overheating problems indicate otherwise).
I then flushed and cleaned the intake water strainer and checked the gearbox oil level (it'll be another 300 odd hours before that needs replacing.
With the engine filled with nice new oil or was time to fire it up and check for leaks. The only problem being that it wouldn't start. I bled the fuel lift pump, which I'd forgotten to do but couldn't get any fuel out of the bleed nipple.
I'd got diesel to the CAV filter and there's only a few inches of pipe from there to the pump but it simply wouldn't prime and get going. In the end I had to resort to pulling the pipe off the pump and sucking the fuel through.
Diesel tastes pretty foul but it got the job done and soon enough she was running sweetly and, to my delight, not a leak in sight.
It being gone six now, all I had time to do was tidy up the boat, dump the rubbish, have a wash and head for the pub for some grub. I debated eating on board, and probably should have done, but I really didn't feel like cooking for myself so pub grub was the order of the day.
Whether Rik will get back in time for a pint is looking dubious but we shall see!
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