Tuesday 31 March 2009

Tanks and valves

Inlet to sewage tank in place now along with vent to outside.
Washing machine discharge in side of hull in place along with isolating valve.
Weather much warmer today.

Monday 30 March 2009

Changed oil in generator, deck wash engine, and ran all engines for an hour.

Saturday 21 March 2009

Poof of smoke.

Now the water tank is ok apart from a small leak, which will be fixed when the level falls, I started the filling line for the diesel tanks in the engine room. The job went so well it was finished in a couple of hours. Sometimes jobs that look easy arn't and those that seem hard tun out to be easy peasy. I then tried the diesel transfer pump, which had not been used in ages. A big blue flash from the motor and that was it. A new one will have to be found now. Moral of this is to run them more often.

Monday 16 March 2009

Water tank piped up today and filled one small leak which is easily fixed but will wait for level to drop. Happy with outcome.

Saturday 14 March 2009

The water tank now has its door fixed 64 13mm nuts later, hopefully early next week we will find if its holding water with no leaks.

Friday 13 March 2009

Called out last night to sort out my dear friend Lise's electric problems, got her back with power. Today I had to renew her supply cable as it was in a pretty bad state. Lise is Danish and will be taking her ship over to the Thames sometime this year hopefully. Two German carpenters on her ship too, one had a fall this morning, my first aid came in handy.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Blinking tooth giving me hell, hopefully it's just because of the jabbing about yesterday.
75kg of cement later and the tank is lined, door on tomorrow and pipe up. Water boat ordered for next week.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Dentist

Lost half a tooth and most of a filling, 2hrs at the dentist and it's fixed.
Finished the first coat of cement on water tank.
Weather looking better.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

A heavy day

Yesterday I helped move next door neighbour's studio contents, form one side of Rotterdam to the other. These old fashion stairs are not made for moving things, apparently it was one of the few not destroyed by the German bombing.
Then I helped move Petra's ship to another mooring, very windy and very little space to manoeuvre. I then drained her engine and gearbox oil. New oil not bought yet.
Too much in one day, had to go to bed early.

Sunday 8 March 2009

Electric problems

A lot of head scratching today.The ship on the outside of us takes its power from the same source as us, max 16amps. He decided to put his washing machine on the same time as us, as well as our immersion heater switched on. Everything went off,my inverter took over, it could not cope with the load so that handed the towel in as well. Looking for the fault onboard, of course, led nowhere because the supply fuse had blown on the jetty. Lecky company phoned up, nice man came out and fixed it with a new fuse in minutes.
Moral of this story, check you have volts where cable enters ship, and tell next door when it is washing day.

Saturday 7 March 2009

Water tank

My first layer of cement completed, 2 to go. Good job I am do not have that condition (can't spell it) being frightened of small spaces.
Rest of the day doing nothing and hope there is some Rugby on the box. My team are not doing well.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Diary of a day's work

I can't really put in a few words what we have done in the past five years, but a quick resume here.
Two thirds of the cargo space converted into living area. We were lucky that most of the insulation came free, an old office building was being demolished, they were grateful for us to take it mostly rock wool. There was a 8" beam across the top, it was either to be taken out or hidden. We made it look like an old wooden beam using 8"x 4" timber, looked so nice we did another. So now we have kitchen unfinished, lounge just finishing touches,main bedroom, guest bedroom, two bathrooms and toilets, hobby room unfinished, and larder unfinished. 9000ltrs of water storage, 3000lts diesel storage, 600amp/hr 24volt domestic battery, 5kw Mastervolt combi inverter, 5kw generator, 150amp alternator on aux engine.
Hot water is provided by the main engine cooling system when on the move, solid fuel stove in winter, and a solar heat collector I made myself, in the summer. If all else fails electric.
A steel deck has been fitted under the old top for 2/3rds of the length, we need to keep the appearance original. This was very hard work, but the welding improved. Forward of this is a wooden deck we use in the summer for drinky poos. I intend to use steel in the end though.
We go to lots of flea markets and antique fairs for all the bits and pieces that look nice. Best buy was a 19th century barometer for 40euros, and a set of British beer pumps.
My next job is to cement line, a steel fresh water tank but not today.