How green was my engine.

Or...............

How I got a B.R.G.  B.M.C. by A.M.C.!

To the shock, horror and consternation of some of our neighbours, I'm 'pimping our bilge'!

I've de-cluttered, de-greased and have started de-rusting our bilge, in preparation for painting it with light grey garage floor paint, I've also de-greased the B.M.C. engine (marinised by A.M.C.) so I decided to give it a lick of paint B.R.G. (British Racing Green)

The newly painted engine with it's nice new exhaust pipe ;o)

Now I need to finish de-rusting in the bilge, I'll treat it with Fertan rust converter and then paint it light grey.

The bit that has the traditionalists up in arms is the fact that I'm going to fit what's left of my self-adhesive LED strip under the deck so that I can see what I'm doing when I'm in the engine 'ole.

It's a good job that S.W.S.B.O. isn't about!

Glenda had to go back to Suffolk after the Easter break, leaving me to carry on work on our boats.With the chaotic mess that ensued it's a good job she wasn't around!

If you've managed to stay awake and keep up with my antics you'll know that I am a convert to the Whale pump, it started with a Whale-Gulper (waste-water pump) in Freyja, followed by a Whale-Master (fresh water pump), next came a Whale-Gulper for Christina and this week I finally got around to fitting the Whale-Master on Christina. A quick and simple job..........................Yay!-ish.

In the foreground is the old leaky pump, the Whale-master is behind it. (we used a 2 bar model for two outlets, Freyja has a 3 bar for 3 outlets)

So I turned on the water, re-set the trip for the pump and test drove it by washing out the bath which can get a bit dusty from my workshop. Nice and clean so switched on the Whale-Gulper but was puzzled that I couldn't hear the characteristic 'splash-splash' of the water into the lake. I turned around to see that it was running down the middle of the cabin, EEEEK! It was coming from under the bath, OK, undo the bath panel, Ah? It's sort of built in, OK, lift a section of the floor so that I could get it out. Drain pipe had pulled off the bottom of the bath.

Right, while I've got the floor up, might as well try to move one of the two sinks that are in Freyja's bathroom to Christina as she doesn't have one at all. But we wanted to move the small basin from the small unit on the end of Freyja's bath to Christina, and the larger basin under the side hatch to the end of Freyja's bath.

Suddenly a 20 minute job turns into a four day job. HoHum!

For some weird reason there are two sinks with taps, right opposite each other on Freyja, this one replaces the side locker steps!

Here is the smaller sink on the other side (apologies for the fuzzy picture), with the doors from the starboard side unit propped against it (to see if it would fit in a way that left enough room to get to the loo)

Cutting the top to a shape that would fit the proposed unit, allowing the bowl to fit without fouling the frame was a brain teaser.
The taps are fitted but I've only taped the doors on until Glenda gives me her approval. Then I'll make the frame, rear skin and shelves.

This is the unit, in Christina, that I'll add the small bowl to.

        The stupidly positioned vanity unit is no more! ;o)            Now I'll move the bulkheads two inches to make enough room to fit our captain's chest in, so I'll need to shorten the shelves, wardrobe rail etc.

 

Looking from outside the side hatch at the, as yet un-restored, captain's chest, which will have a step that folds down on top of it and a cushion so that it can be used as a seat

The unfinished new (upcycled) vanity unit as seen though the side hatch.

We made it back to Ringstead

Jay from 'Raging Speedhorn' (one of the bands I used to take out on tour in my sleeperbus) arrived with Kath's sister and their four and a half month old baby. It was great to see him again and to hear that they have reformed the band. Also Kath's Mum came to travel with them all back to Ringstead.

The wind whipped up and made winding the three boats a challenge, we lagged behind and wrestled with the wind as our tarpaulins make very effective sails! We had our work cut out to exit Ringstead lock and to battle across to the lock landing so I wasn't looking forward to trying to reverse onto our pontoon with everyone watching. Lots of people came to try to help us but I amazed everyone (including myself) by reversing dead straight in with no problems! WooHoo! That was the icing on the cake, the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

A big thanks to Mark, Kath, Steve and Louise for helping to make it such a great little trip. ;o)

A lovely weekend cruise down the Nene

After sorting the exhaust I re-connected the bilge pump (once we were satisfied that the bilge was dry and free of any diesel).

We took the generator and our battery jump pack, just in case and we set off towards Denford on a beautiful sunny day.

It had been a long time since we last moved her and I was a tad rusty, as we reached Ringstead lock I missed getting Freyja into reverse and we crashed unceremoniously into the lock landing! Oops! We stopped to buy a new centre rope as ours had seen better days. Two other boats appeared and we rushed back, it was Mark and Kath on NB Kia-Ora and Steve and Louise on NB Hedgehog (both boats are from our marina), they were heading for Denford as well. We let them go ahead of us and then shared the lock with another boat.

Glenda steering towards Woodford, the weather was great, the countryside and wildlife were fantastic ;o)

Woodford in the distance

Brett on NB Aqualina shared Woodford lock with us, we let him go first as we were taking our time. He'd already gone a fair way in front of us.

We breasted up to Mark and Kath on NB Kia-Ora, Brett on NB Aqualina is in front of us and Steve and Louise on NB Hedgehog are behind us. We got the barbeques out and Glenda and I enjoyed some of Lidl's finest kangaroo steaks. A hot air balloon appeared to add even more interest to the scene.

After we'd eaten we used our notebook barbeque as a pit fire and sat around enjoying the flames, our solar fairylights switched on and Brett decided it was too quiet for him and headed back toward Ringstead. Glenda and I wandered up to The Cock in Denford and had a great night as usual.

Steve and Louise's puppy Sam decided to live dangerously and wandered about on the barbeques, nibbling of the charcoal and bits of the grills. Steve is amused, Pippa their other dog isn't impressed.

Cheeky little pup Sam has Glenda, Steve and mark in fits, Pippa doesn't think it's funny!

We almost got invaded by this herd of young cows it was great seeing them frolicking on the meadow, Pippa was impressed too!

New stainless steel flexi fitted

I have now fitted the new stainless steel flexi (very sexy, slinky and shiny!) it cost £40 including collars welded each end, clamps and postage.

Freyja is almost ready to 'fly the nest'

Freyja is finally running again

After all of the problems with diesel bug and water in the diesel, I decided to fit an MLS centrifugal filter to remove water, dieselbug and impurities, Mark from Nene Marine sorted out some BSC standard piping. So after finishing putting missing bits back on the engine  I bled it and she finally burst into life, with her newly skimmed head and new head gasket. The exhaust flexi is still broken, hence the smoke! It will be replaced with a stainless steel flexi and a new roof collar. Apologies for the loss of commentary due to the 'mechanical commotion' ;o)
Unfortunately, I forgot to tighten the drain cock on the bottom of the new filter, so when we ran the engine it vibrated off, while we were asleep about thirty gallons of diesel siphoned down into the bilge! Luckily, it did not activate the bilge pump or it would have all pumped out into the lake, with distrastrous consequences!
I then had to waste best part of two very long and hard days pumping it out, de-greasing, washing, pumping out, de-greasing, washing.............. ;o(
We now have a very clean bilge (comparatively!) We also took out the engineering bricks which were filthy and greasy and seemingly only contributing to a negative level. I will give it one more thorough de-grease and clean before I paint it all and fix an LED strip around under the cockpit.
We were about to dump the old gas / 12v / 240v fridge as it didn't work on gas but plugged it into the mains and it is now working, haven't tried the 12v yet. So it will do us while we are in the marina.

WooHoo! Christina has a new safety certificate.

Julian (Loddon) re-wired Christina, our butty, as the electrics were dodgy in places, also I wanted to be able to use 16amp C-form (blue) type sockets at each end of the boat and to have 12v and 240v sockets in our boatman's cabin.

Mark from Nene Marine fitted a gas bubble tester and Ian Jennings did our safety survey.

The main feed coming into the consumer unit had a wire twisted and taped to another wire which was attached to this tiny crocodile clip by a choccie block! Just one example of the dodgy wiring before the re-wire