Jobs done.

The sun was due to shine today so we decided to have a day off and stay where we were. Well I say a day off but I took the opportunity to do a few jobs, but slowly!

First off I have tempted fate by cleaning the stove and chimney. In doing so I found yet another use for WD40! It cleaned the glass beautifully and much easier than Methalyted spirits does, and with no rubbing. I then went to the hedgerow and found a hawthorn branch that had a good number of branches etc and cut it to the right length. As it is spring it is nice and springy and the thorns on the twigs are nice and sharp. I squeezed this down the chimney and pulled it up and down. I made sure that the stove door and vents were shut too by the way. There was not much soot, but plenty of rust! The glass is nice and clean. The fire rope still looks in good condition and there are no smoke leaks so It will do for now.

The outlet on the roof is 7" which is a little rare and I have hand made a cement bung to fit it. It now needs another coat of paint.

The stove had a few rust spots so I sanded these down and then gave the whole stove a good coat of Zebrite and a buff up. The lamp came out of a skip and just takes tea lights.

I found where the all the soot had gone as it was baked on to the chimney itself. In fact at the bottom of the chimney was very thick tar. Fortunately this came off quite easily with an old screwdriver and the rest also was quickly shifted. I have put the chimney away and inserted the bung knowing that it is due to cool off at the weekend but I have my fingers crossed that it wont be bad enough to need to lit the fire again. We have one scuttle of coal and a box of logs left though just in case.

Next winter we will be having a new stove pipe fitted and a new section on the roof too. This time it will be a double skinned pipe and the connection will be done correctly so that any dripping tar drips back down to the stove rather than leaking out on to the roof. As we are having a re-paint that would be a disaster. We are also going down to the more normal 6" chimney which may make the stove more controllable and hopefully more economic too.

My other job was to re stick the magnetic strip that secure my double glazing to the window frames to the neoprene strip that fills the gap at the top. I had bought some special glue for this but as I had used some glue to stick some acrylic sheet in the bathroom I decided to try that on the double glazing too. I left it to dry as long as I could and cleaned the windows of the boat and later in the afternoon the double glazing panels too. I had earlier trimmed the sides of the acrylic sheet as when the boat got warm and expanded the sheets jammed between the frames and bowed out so pulling the glue apart. We will have to see what happens with this latest modification. Helen does say that of all the things I have done to the boat these are the best as there is no need to mop up condensation every morning. They can be left in place as the top hopper is still available for use and it certainly does keep the boat warmer.

Helen set too first thing going through the boat cleaning the lot. It the end of that she was done in and took the rest of the day off. As the sun was shining she picked the bow as it was out of the wind and settled down with a book. At least I knew where she was all the time.

I haven't mafe up my mind weather it was Helen on the st'bd side causing the list or that we are aground a little. There has been a steady number of boats passing today in I here many of them slow as the thread through the narrow bridge hole astern and then speed up. They may then drop their revs again, but not usually until their bow is level with our stern. I think you should slow down to tick over about two or three boat lengths away so that the speed drops by the time you approach the moored boat. This means there is more time for water to flow into the displacement of the boat so reducing the suction and surge interaction. Really you could go back to cruising revs as you get to the moored vessel as by the time you are clear the speed still hasn't increased to that set by the revs. When you are in the boat though the passing boats always look to be going faster than they do if you are outside in my experience.