Broken again

Well there is an interesting sight. On the left is the prop shaft leaving the gearbox. On the right is the prop shaft carrying on to the propeller. The bit in the middle is supposed to be in a straight line - and not broken.

I think that the main thrust bearing has been faulty for a while now so instead of the propeller pushing against that it has been pushing against the universal joint that was used to cope with any small misalignment between the prop and the engine. It isn't designed to take the main thrust of the boat! Last month's engine mount failure probably stressed the joints and bearings and so this weekend it finally gave up the ghost and went bang in a very spectacular way. It also bent some of the engine mounts so the engine is definitely no longer in line!

Unfortunately I was in the middle of a three point turn just below a weir with very strong river flows when we found ourselves with no power. Well, lots of power in the engine but none getting into the water!

Fortunately I managed to get a rope around a bollard on the bank and stop Relativity from crashing her way through the main shopping centre in Reading. A particularly narrow and twisty bit of the river Kennet.

After a Friday night spent in the town centre where I woke with a start every time another drunk staggered past the boat. I really didn't want to find myself cut loose and drifting down river in the dark.
Pete came over on Saturday and we managed to get the broken bits out. Later in the afternoon the nice man from Reading Marine came and made the time honoured whistling sound that means "that's going to be expensive." I'm expecting a quote tomorrow.

A little later on, Buck and Di, my next door neighbours at the marina, turned up with several other people on their boat "Muddy Puddles" and we towed Relativity back through town and to the marina. Unfortunately (again) the strong stream through the Oracle shopping centre proved too much for even Buck's powerful engine and we had a pretty large crash which entertained the shoppers immensely! It didn't amuse Buck and Di because it bent quite a lot of their boat :-(

As we arrived back in to our moorings we found that the rest of our neighbours has got BBQs going and a gentle party was had.

Thank you all for your help.

Her beating heart

Thanks to dad's genius friend Dave who is a magician with welding I have a functioning engine mount and alternator mount all in one. We took the broken pieces of the engine mount and welded them together and then welded that to the alternator mount to create a very strong lump of metal.

I spent 3 hours today with the engine propped up on wooden blocks to stop it falling on me whilst I scrabbled around upside down in the engine bay trying to fit truculent bolts! The good news is that it is all now working and Relativity's iron heart is beating again - yay! The even better news is that I have no new injuries to report - double yay! The even better news is that Relativity and I made it across the river to Tesco for some vital supplies and then up the Kennet & Avon to the middle of town where we'll be spending a couple of days.

It does feel good to be mobile again.

And so to bed - have to be up early in the morning.

S.

Neglected

Well, it has been a very long time since I updated things here hasn't it?

The last post was just after I'd dropped the broken inverter off with Midland Chandlers in Braunston. It re-appeared a week later in fully functioning form - well, actually a completely new unit appeared and I suspect that the old one was never quite right as this one is quieter and cooler!

The winter was cold - on one morning I woke to find that the room outside my bed was at -5C ... blinkin' cold! I had terrible problems with the central heating and finally traced the problem to dirt in the bow fuel tank. It is now running off a small plastic jerrycan in the bathroom which isn't exactly "regulation" but works just fine. When things get a bit warmer I'll drain the bow tank and fit a filter - ok, we all know that actually dad will help - a lot :-)

At one point the snow was so heavy on the roof that we were all a bit concerned at the jaunty angles we were managing to rock over to! At several points the marina froze over and one night Relativity froze rocked over to the port side. The following morning we couldn't get the ice to break so we staggered around inside. Jill finally got so irritated with the cupboards and drawers sliding open all the time that she fitted child locks. A truly inspired idea.

The Squirrel stove has done an amazing job. On a couple of occasions I have had it snowing outside but had to open doors and hatches to let the heat out! If I can keep the Squirrel burning all the time then the whole boat is very pleasant with no condensation problems. If I go away for a few days it can take a good 24 hours to get everything warmed up again!

Most of you will be aware that I had an accident involving the main hatch which I dropped on my left hand. The good news is that my fingers are healing nicely although my middle finger is unlikely to work properly for a very long time - if ever. The even better news is that I've found a very nice man who is building a sliding hatch to replace the lifty-uppy one. It should be ready in a few weeks and will make life a lot easier for everyone else. The lifty-uppy hatch has been a pain in the backside forever as it is very heavy and not terribly stable.

On our last "it's half term again, how many people can we cram on to Relativity?" jaunt, the travel power alternator broke a mounting bolt. This was odd but I didn't think anything of it. A couple of days ago I set to to replace the bolt only to discover why it had broken... The engine mounting bracket beneath it was cracked all the way through! Given the size of the piece of metal involved it is hardly surprising that the poor bolt couldn't cope when a significant proportion of the weight of the engine suddenly dropped on to it! It took me 4 hours to unbolt the remaining bits of the bracket from the engine because I had to find a way of lifting the engine a couple of inches in order to get at the bolts. Fortunately I didn't drop the engine on my hand!

Unlike the bed - which I did drop on my hand this evening. It has needed some of the structural stuff finishing for ages (like since I first built it) and I finally decided that tonight was the time. It is now much more stable.

And... my good friend Val Thorne has given up a pile of her time to make some great curtains so I can finally get rid of the horrid blinds. I've installed three sets so far. Three more to go. They are fab.

That's it for the moment. More soon. Honest :-)

S.

Customer service at its best

Having turned the boat upside down and realising that I couldn't find the receipt for the inverter I decided to drop it off with Midland Chandlers anyway and try and blag the lack of proof of purchase. What a nice bunch of people they are!

Not only were they happy to help but one of their directors said he was driving past the manufacturer later in the day and would drop it off personally!

Now I just have to wait and see what they say about repair or replacement.

Shouldn't be too long.

S.

How much?

It has boggled my mind to realise how much poo 7 people can generate in 4 days!

Having said that, we have proved that 7 people can live on Relativity and not kill each other - even if only for a short time. Ok, the inverter blew up, we lost the chimney, David broke his arm, Eddi fell in to the Thames many times, Josh fell in slightly fewer times, Zach got stung by wasps 3 times, Charli played SIMS endlessly (that music will drive anyone mad), Jill snored and Stuart just didn't stop!

On the other hand, everyone had a lot of fun, we built a huge bonfire and almost set light to half of Oxfordshire (yay), we ate endless cakes (thank you Jill) and the kids washed up (thank you all).

Happiness is a half term holiday that everyone enjoyed... and I am happy.

S.

Kitchen utensils

There comes a point in a man's life when he realises that hacking the top off a can of tuna or soup with a pair of wire cutters or a hack saw isn't really quite what polite society is expecting. The end result is exactly what you'd expect... a can that looks like it has lost a fight with a hack saw and plenty of added metal filings in your soup :-)

Suffice to say that I stood in the utensils aisle at Tesco and wished for less choice. I just want a can opener. I'd like to be able to introduce the can and the opener and, once the initial introductions are done, have the top come off the can. How hard can it be? But ah, the ingenuity of mankind has produced 20 different kinds of can opener, each one promising to solve problems I'd never imagined existed let alone come across. Tesco, in their infinite wisdom have seen fit to offer this bewildering array of choice on the assumption that I actually care what colour the thing is or whether I need a little magnet so that the top of the can is held by the opener until I'm ready to drop it in the bin. Hang on... many cans are aluminium so that isn't going to be much use is it?

Finally, the choice was made. A white can opener that cuts the top off without leaving sharp bits at the lower end of the price range. Common sense and decency prevail again.

And then I realise that I've been ranting on about nothing more important than a can opener. Oh no, does that mean I'm turning into a gumpy old man?

Bah humbug.

S.

Warmth in the morning

I woke up this morning, pushed the button, rolled over and went back to sleep for half an hour. When I woke up, guess what? Yep, toasty home.

Now all I need to do is get the timer working and I can wake up warm whenever I want :-)

Thanks dad.

S.

Working central heating

So there it is... a working central heating boiler on a boat. The radiators are all toasty and warm which is slightly ironic as it is a lovely sunny day but at least it proves that the theory works.

Now we have to finish off the diesel supply to the boiler because at the moment it is running on a plastic pipe from a bottle full of diesel. By the end of the weekend it should be running on a nice fireproof copper tube from the heating diesel tank in the bow.

This is so exciting for so many reasons. Well done to Ian for his efforts in working out how it should all go together.

For those of you with a short memory... Relativity now has a wood burning stove in the saloon which is very romantic and kicks out a huge amount of heat but it is relatively confined to the saloon/kitchen area. She also has 4 radiators connected to the engine to provide heat whilst we're chugging and also connected to the boiler to provide heat whilst we're not chugging. Now I can be warm in front of the fire in the evening and wake up to a reasonably toasty bedroom in the morning.

Hmmmmm.

Ian and I will be connecting up a hot water tank as well but for the moment the gas boiler will have to do.

S.

How not to do it

Now here is a challenge for you... drilling a hole in the side of the boat without either sinking the boat or electrocuting yourself! Drill it from the inside and you risk getting it too low. Drill it from the outside and you're messing with mains electricity far too close to a big pile of metal sitting in a very large puddle!

I ended up sitting in the kayak jammed between Relativity our next door neighbour Onion with the power cable trailing out of the bathroom window. There are plenty of electrical safety devices on-board Relativity but just in case of accident Ian had his finger on the "off" switch.

"Why are you drilling holes in the side of a boat?" I hear you ask. Exhaust pipe for the central heating and to tidy up the plumbing in the bathroom. Both the shower and the sink drained through the same hole and that tended to mean that the sink filled up via the plug hole (yuk) when the shower was being used. Now they are separated that won't happen (yay).

More tomorrow.

S.

Succumbing to the dark side

For six months I've lived without TV but the time has finally come and I could put the evil off no longer! I have installed FreeSat so now have 150 channels of rubbish to choose from to help relieve the long winter evening boredom.

Having said that it is surprising how much I had missed the BBC weather forecast!
And Torchwood.
And Dr. Who.
And Top Gear.

The boys will be delighted because they'll be able to be telly addicts whether they are at the house or at the boat now. I shall be rationing them hugely and access to the remote control will only be granted after the chores are done!

Setting up FreeSat isn't as hard as one might think - once you've learned a couple of tricks. My neighbour Pete and I spent two hours getting my dish aligned properly. His took less than 20 minutes. The key sequence seems to be to start with the dish pointing too far East and slowly bring it West until you get a signal from the satellites. Then stop and get the elevation right (pointing up and down). Now you can continue to get the azimuth right (East and West) and then a little fine tweaking of the elevation. This sequence was so much faster than any other sequence.

Next week will be the final (I hope) installment in the central heating saga :-)

S.

Central heating!

Yes, it is finally here! Relativity has central heating. Three radiators, one in the spare bedroom, one in the saloon and one in my bedroom. There will be a fourth in the bathroom but not until the boiler is installed and the shower re-built.

At present the radiators are heated by waste heat from the engine so in order to have heat I have to run the engine but that will change as soon as we get the boiler installed which can now be done because of all the hard work that Ian and I have done this weekend getting the electrical supply sorted out for it. In the end, hooking up the radiators to the engine was almost an anti-climax. It just worked!

I also put up a cupboard in the bathroom so that the collection of potions etc. can be tidied away. It is a nice little pine cupboard with a mirror on it so people can brush their hair and powder their noses :-)

Bernie popped over for tea tonight and we had a nice boys' night in. Good food and conversation.

That's all for now. What a weekend!

A long summer

Dear blog reader,

I've had a couple of really nice holidays and a week of excruciating pain over the summer. The "good/bad" balance of the universe has been maintained :-)

There hasn't been that much progress on Relativity because I've been away so much but this weekend Ian and I have taken the back bedroom apart completely and re-built the bunks in a much more useful configuration. We've also re-wired the 12v circuits from the stern to the bathroom so that the various pumps in there have a more reliable and higher current supply. The difference is obvious already. The real reason for doing this is so that we can install the central heating boiler in there soon (like before it gets too much colder at night ;-) ). It needs a good 12v supply for the fuel pump, the glow plug and the water pump.

Unfortunately the Travelpower blew up on Friday and I have no idea why so that is going to take some investigation :-(

Thanks to Jill I also have a drawer on wheels under my bed so that makes storing things there much easier!

Plans for the next couple of weeks include the possible addition of a 12v FreeSat TV system. I know... you thought I was being soooo alternative and living without TV but I'm finding that there are various things I do miss - quite apart from the boys complaining that there is no TV here. Grrrrr.

S.

A little sunshine

As some of you already know I've spent much of the last few days in rather a lot of pain with kidney stones. They're still here and still hurting so to distract myself from the pain until I can pop some more of the wonderful pain killers that the hospital gave me I thought I'd post a quick picture that someone else took of Relativity and me.

The nice doctor said that the stone was small enough to come out on its own and that it should happen in the next day or so. It's now three days later and still no sign! I wonder if she'd factored in that boys have longer tubes in that particular respect?

Ah well, back to whimpering in the corner. At least it is sunny :-)

S.

Give me more power!

Ok, ok, I know you've had nothing to look at but the loo for a while but I have been busy. For a start I have stripped my bedroom out and built myself a new bed. It is fabulous and I'll write more about it when it is completely finished. Suffice to say it is very comfy and the boys and I have watched movies all tucked up nice and warm.

The other major piece of progress has been a lovely set of coincidences. One of the issues on Relativity is that the alternator isn't really up to charging the batteries if we're out of the marina for any length of time, especially if we're having hot weather and the fridge is working hard to keep all the chocolate from melting. To solve this there are two solutions but my favourite was to get a Travel Power unit and fit it. These things are basically a mains generator that you bolt to the side of the engine and some electronics to plumb it in to the rest of the boat. There is one problem. They're expensive! Very expensive and cash is tight at the moment.

It turns out that one of my neighbours had one that he wasn't using so we did some haggling and moved it over to Relativity. The amazing thing was that he had the same make of engine so most of the mounting brackets were the same. Ian has been a major help and got the final bracket custom made so that it would fit my engine. He then came and spent the last couple of days unbolting stuff from one boat and moving it onto Relativity. This afternoon came the moment of truth! There was a slight hiccup when it looked like a rather large pully we needed would be hard to find but Reading Marine found one at the back of a cupboard on a dusty shelf. They even delivered it to the marina with one of their staff who lives here. Fabulous.

And yes, just to make all the true boaty types out there really sick, I can now run the full sized washing machine on a hot wash whilst chugging along. Yeee ha.

More soon.
S.