ANOTHER GOOD MORNING

Birds

On this riverside berth the Wheelhouse is just like a bird hide, even though the windows are large and the birds can surely see me. This morning there was, on the low tide mud flats, the greatest variety I've yet seen:

- Shelduck
- Redshank
- Oystercatcher
- Snipe
- Curlew
- Little egret
- Common gull 
- Lapwing

Rafiki

We've accepted an offer on Rafiki. Here's hoping it goes through. That will be a great weight off my mind.

Bike
 
My bike bits are arriving, including mudguards. I can't understand why all bikes aren't fitted with them. Next job is fitting them all, then there'll be no excuse for avoiding swimming exercise!

Printer+

I've bought this HP printer/fax/scanner/copier. Quite a hoo hah getting the wireless connection up and running. It only cost £27ish which by no stretch of the imagination covers its cost, but the two ink cartridges cost £43ish!

 

 

Shelving, varnishing, air heater progress and weird weather.

27 01 16

Galley shelving

 

Yesterday I completed the installation of some extra working storage space in the galley.

   

I’d had the idea ages ago. The crockery storage on the left looks nice and it would be a small job to fix a shelf on top of the main strake running above the basin. The problem was getting the strip mahogany. No one had any. The nearest would be in Colchester. 

Then good luck struck as I was clearing out Rafiki. Pop had used two beautiful pieces of mahogany as legs for his work table in the studio. I took slices off them using a circular saw (I knew that workshop training some 50 years ago would come in useful one day.) varnished them up and stuck them in place with screws and glue. Looks and works fine.

  

                                                                                        Must get the camera flash working!

 

Varnishing

Lady Cate has lots of varnished wood both topsides and insides. Preparing the wood for the galley storage got me started. Varnishing will be an endless maintenance chore, which I don’t mind, as it is restful work. Apart from the shelving I’ve practiced on a few areas in the wheelhouse. Makes a dramatically shiny improvement.

Can't get going on the outside until the weather's better. April is the earliest they start.

 

Air heater

At last I’ve ordered and payed for (PayPal) the air heater from China, $590.00 including air freight. Can’t wait to get going. I’ve been lucky with this mild winter.

 Weather

Although very mild it has been very windy, regularly up to force 7. Lady Cate rocks about happilky at her mooring, which I love, though I can't say why!

Bye for now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

10 01 16

I’ve just returned to Lady Cate. A huge blood orange sun was setting over the westerly woods lighting the undersides of the clouds above in lusciously rich shades from rose to apricot, set off perfectly by the blue sky above. Reminds me of the bright colours in Turner’s work where you look at the painting and can’t believe the colours of the sky can be so bright. But they are! Across the river a large flock of birds, which I don’t know, were settling in for the night chattering away to each other. A perfect evening.

The old house – Rafiki

I had been clearing out the old house and tarting it up a bit. I had thought it would be sold by now but it was looking very tired so, before Christmas, Tony and I spent a vigorous week painting most of the interior walls to great effect. Here’s hoping.

Healthy on board

Now here is a strange phenomenon. Like many an old git I was told by my doc that my blood pressure was too high at c.160/100. When I moved on to Lady Cate it went down to c. 130/80 and has stayed there ever since! What to make of it? Any ideas?

Air heater

As Mike had warned me, the old gas fired air heater in Lady Cate was completely caput. I’ve sold it for spares for £27! 

Knackered!

I’m getting a new diesel fired heater to replace it. (So I’m rather pleased we’ve had such a mild winter, so far.) They are v expensive at some £1,250 but there are copies available from both Russia and China at about £400.

Whilst there have been doubts about Russian and Chinese quality, in my experience those days are long gone. Russia used to make a great SLR camera called the Zenit-E at the height of the Cold War, still collectible today. In my many years working with Russia I saw some very sound engineering businesses with good quality control. And their launch rocket’s still going strong!

When I was looking for a special aluminium product for UK supply the Chinese produced the best sample of an aluminium structure, far better than the British sample, sad to say.

So I don’t think I’m taking a risk.

So I tried ordering a 5kW heater advertised on eBay from Russia. All went well until I tried Paypal which resolutely refused to allow me to pay. After a call or two I found out why. Paypal told me that, because of US sanctions on Russia they are not allowed to pay in to Russian companies. Ah well – China next. Simon, the Marina manager, has given me the name of an importer.

Email and Windows 10

I have at last succeeded in downloading Windows 10. BUT it’s knocked out my email completely! Having a hell of a job to get it going again.