Thursday, November 22, 2012

The boat's a-rockin !!!

Well, what a very windy day it is today !  The boat has been 'swaying' all day - and the wind is whistlin' around it!  The boys and I are all cosy inside this afternoon ... as is evidenced here by Geoffrey and William ...


It is not often that I can get a nice picture of William but today I managed to... 


... until Geoffrey came and sat on top of him !


How unconscious can cats look !!!


Anyway, apart from sitting by the fire with my animals I actually have done stuff today !  This morning Elly (from NB Parisien Star) and I popped down into Stone to do some shopping.  Our first stop was to buy some rubber mats for the pontoon next to the boats - after my little 'stack' the other day, we don't want to take any risks.  Where Elly and Mick's boat is moored it is all wooden pontoons surrounded by water - so they are going to have to be especially careful !

Next stop for me was to go to Boots to get Paul's prescription!  Yes, the system worked - I requested his repeat prescription last week from the doctor's in Macclesfield, then I requested it to be sent straight to Boots in Macclesfield.  I then rang Boots in Macclesfield yesterday and requested that they send the script to Boots in Stone - which they did !  Boots in Stone even rang me to tell me it was there yesterday afternoon.  A 'good result' (as they used to say in The Bill!)
Elly and I then popped into Morrison's for some bits - we even found a new sea vegetable, neither of us (nor the lady at the checkout) had heard of ... Samphire.  Apparently is is a sea vegetable which grows near shorelines - it takes a little salty.  So, I got some to try - it is nice - I had it with a bit of Haddock for my lunch - another good result !

Elly hasn't blogged yet today and may, or may not, tell you in her blog about her conversation with the Stone Lions chaps, who were selling raffle tickets at the door of Morrison's!! Very funny:)

When we got back to the Marina I unloaded and positioned my new rubber mats - and then Mick very, very kindly came over and screwed them down for me !  Now I'm not goin' anywhere (and neither are the mats!).  It is a good job they are screwed down with all this wind today.  Anyway, here they are - not very pretty but pretty safe.  Thanks so much, Mick!





When Mick left I had to get into the engine 'room' to do a bit of investigating!  Just lately the water pump has been going off for a few seconds all on its own (ie, when no water is running) - doesn't do it that often just now and again I hear it.  I was skyping Paul last night when it did it, so I said I wondered if it was the bilge pump in the cratch and not the water pump at all? Paul concurred that I should probably have a look just to make sure there was no water down the 'hole' in the cratch - which I did (in the dark and the cold - how brave of me !) - then I promptly caught my finger in the doors when I was shutting them up - another ouch for the week !  Anyway, there was no water down there so I said I would check the engine room today ...

I opened up the back of the boat and the engine 'room' doors (which is no mean feat in the wind!) - and discovered that the bowl we had put under the water system relief valve was full to overflowing and there was a fair bit of water down there - so I had to get out the mop and bucket while precariously standing on bits of the engine 'scaffolding' that I hoped I should be standing on!  I got about quarter of a bucket of water out of the bottom ... think I might have to go through the procedure quite frequently 'til Paul gets back !  No idea if that has anything whatsoever to do with the water pump going off - but I am sure Paul will tell me soon !!

There - I have done stuff, see?  Tonight, I am going to Elly and Mick's for a good Aussie favourite - pumpkin soup - yum !  I think I will just step out of the boat, put out my arms and let the wind fly me over there !!!  It's raining heavily again now too - oh joy!!
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2 comments:

  1. OK, the pressure relief valve has probably got a bit of limescale on it and is not seating fully. The pump pressurizes the system but a trickle of water can escape from the pressure relief valve which has not fully seated - pressure drops - pump runs - pressure builds - pump stops....again and again. Solution(s) 1, opertae relief valve a few times to try and clear the scale - careful not to get hot water on hands, 2, get Paul to remove the pressure releif valve and clean the scale off, 3, get a new pressure relief valve.

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    1. Oh cool - thanks so much - I am going to get my brother onto the case at the weekend !!! El

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