One Thing After Another...

The days really do seem to go by so quickly these days. What happened to the times when I was younger, when it seemed like forever between Halloween and Christmas? Does time really go faster the older you get - I'm sure my Dad used to say something like that! Yes, it's been over a week since I last updated, but there's not all that much that's been going off. We're still doing a very slow cleanup of the engine room. We're not rushing it - it's not a living space so it's not impacting on day to day life on the boat. Last week, we cleaned all the engine room floor boards and all the appliances that had a film of oil all over them(!) We also used an oil and degreaser solution and diluted that and threw it into the bilge where it's still sitting - hopefully working away. In the next day or so we will go in there and give it a good scrubbing with a bristle brush and hopefully a lot of the grease will be cleaned up and we can think further along the lines ...

Yes, we're feeling a little bit more positive about it all today and we've even been cracking a joke or two about it all as well. Today, we didn't get up until late - nearly 11, despite planning an early start to run the engine beforehand to charge up the batteries so we could let it cool enough to work on and fix the exhaust. It left us a bit short of time, but we definitely needed the lie in- with everything going on, it's just drained us - plus I didn't sleep that well last night either due to the local party scene outside!! We had a bit of breakfast/lunch and then Pawel set off on attempting to apply the gum to the exhaust. Here's how it was looking: It's a bit awkward to get to as well as it's the top of the silencer, so it has broken away right on the opposite side to where you can get to - nearly against the side wall of the hull. Poor Pav! He had a little hand held mirror and a torch to help and applied it as best he could. It d...

Well, after a lot of delays - irritating ones at that, we finally got away from Stretford Marina this morning. It wasn't a triumphant journey, nor did we have anything to feel pleased about really despite the engine having been fully re-mounted. Here are the new engine mounts - x4 at £50 a piece! Whilst the engine has been fixed into place and is working, we are aware now of the exhaust silencer having a split in it - apparently where the engine moved forward during it's divorce from the base plate, and has slightly torn away from the main exhaust pipe. This is going to cost us a further £250 ++ on top of what we have already paid - it's seriously depressing. The work in progress - engine disconnected from exhaust and propellor shaft: Not only that, but of course we also had to pay Stretford Marina for the pleasure of mooring there for the last 8 or 9 days. The whole thing has been a nightmare - and the boat still looks like it's in pieces. There's...

With some good food last night (and red wine, of course!) and a lovely comment from a reader, as well as texts from boating friends, I woke up today in a much more positive frame of mind. Pawel is off work today too, although he still isn't feeling the best about everything. We called the guy from RCR this morning to check if he would be coming today, and as I suspected , the answer was no. He did tell me though that he will definitely be coming tomorrow.....we'll see! In the meantime, with Pav being off, we headed into town this morning to get a few bits and pieces so we can get the clean up started in the engine room. We left our 'wet n dry' vac back on our mooring in Poynton which is a bit of a pain as we have a lot of water that has collected in the engine bilge after the incident last Wednesday! There's also a lot of oil that's discharged - not sure where that has come from still at this stage. There doesn't seem to be any leaks or splits anywhere but i...

It's not great being in Stretford - the marina and surroundings are nice but the place in general isn't that great at all - it's making me feel really depressed! Every day now I've come into the city centre just to get away from it all - the boat, the problems and Stretford. Not only that but we only have shoreline on during the day which is switched off at 4:30PM so I'm also trying to reserve electricity where I can, so if I come into Manchester and get a coffee from Costa, I can bring the iPad and phone here to charge them as well as do a blog post! I'm hoping that the guy from RCR comes tomorrow to complete the work and we can be on our way, but I've just got a funny feeling we'll have a call telling us he can't come and it's likely to be later on in the week.... My gut feelings are usually spot on, but I really hope not this time. I just want it done and sorted now! There's nothing like being in limbo is there?! I have a list of job...

There's always a problem isn't there? Especially when it comes to people working on your boat! Basically, we were told this morning that the guy wouldn't be returning today to work on the boat as his van had broken down.... Hmmm. Now we must wait until Monday or Tuesday before he can come back which isn't great as it means we will have to keep making a nuisance of ourselves at Stretford and I hate laying things on people really who don't really have anything to do with it. Poor Malcolm! The good news is that during the day, we have got access to shoreline and I managed to sneak a wash load on today, so that's one plus. Another is that the marina is actually really quiet so we're getting some good sleep! We also topped our water tank up today too and it's in a really handy place - right next to the deck of our boat! Bonus! I'm already thinking of the next job to do (and fork out on!) I want to replace the deck tiles on the front well deck. We ...