November Weekend 2013 - Day 3

The day got off to a slow start over a leisurely cooked breakfast on board.

That done with, I set to trying to remove the panel behind the steps upon which is mounted the shore power consumer unit and the Sterling battery charger.

This proved anything but simple! To remove that panel meant removing all the panels around it and some of those would only come out if glued on trim pieces magically came unglued.

Since removing those trim pieces would inevitably leave damage that would have to be refinished, a temporary plan B was enacted. The new 240v socket and switch panel was mounted on the face of the panel between the aforementioned units and the spur linking it to the consumer unit simply looped underneath the units and secured with a couple of cable clips.

That achieved the primary objective of the exercise which was to put a socket somewhere close enough to the galley worktop for the 240v kettle which up until now had been sitting on the cabin sole by the steps.

The switch side of the panel (a domestic cooker panel) is intended to be permanently wired to a permanently installed 55w tube heater in the engine bay

However, on investigation I could find nowhere suitable to mount the heater that wasn't already occupied by wiring, pipework and so on. I shall see if I can wedge the heater in temporarily in the morning, we'll have to look again another day for a permanent solution.

It took a while to reassemble everything and whilst doing so I replaced the out of date dry powder automatic extinguisher with a new FE36 halon replacement one.

All finished, I relaxed with a coffee and an e-book whilst Jane prepared a tasty beef casserole. A romantic dinner for two by the soft light of the cabin oil lamps warned by the glow of the paraffin heater ... the romance was slightly tarnished by the necessity of washing up once dinner had been dispatched.

A quiet evening of reading and/or watching telly on the tablet ensued to taste until the near simultaneous death of the main cabin lamp and the heater for want of paraffin hinted that it may be time for bed.