Taking its time

It's a strange thing that doing anything on the boat takes four or five times longer than you expect.

On Wednesday Sam went down to fit the heater ducting with Lindsey. They spent a couple of hours aligning everying and then found that the new duct hose doesn't fit - it's 55mm and should be 63mm. Sam succeeded in tracking down the last 6-metre length of 63mm hose in the UK and is fitting it today - I hope! We have never really used the heater, but perhaps we will, who knows, as it will work so well with the new ducting.

On Thursday I went down with a borrowed pressure washer because our neighbours further down the pontoon, who also have a Storm, told us it was the ideal way to get the very tatty decal off the side. I discovered that the two of the pins on the washer's three-pin plug were bent at an angle of 45 degrees, and when I tried to straighten them, they sheared off. I took a spare three-pin plug off a light, fitted it, changed over the fuse, plugged it in, started washing and the water hose blew off, because the hose wall is too thick to be held by the patent fitting. I called Sam who suggested a Jubilee clip (fortunately we have several dozen spare ones lying around from all the work on the engine). This worked, but sadly the pressure washer didn't actually have any impact on the decal at all. The only thing which works is acetone, which is horrible stuff, and I estimate will take about 20 hours's work at the current rate to remove the decals on both sides. Then Sam phoned me to check on progress and my phone battery went flat.

Today I am staying at home waiting for a special Saturday delivery promised by TekTanks for the b***** holding tank. I don't know how late Saturday deliveries arrive, but it's now 13.16 and there's no sign of it. I am convinced it won't fit - nothing else has fitted so far...