Saturday 13th January… BONSOIR MES AMIS !! Linda’s resurrected the French translation book and it’s time to start practising those useful phrases, oh dear! 2018 is here and we’ve begun counting down the weeks until we’ll be speaking a foreign language, or trying to for that matter.
Nous sommes les trois marins
It was all action on Thesee this afternoon. We’ve had the new (one year old by now) alternator fixed, and Dean refitted it … that’s three times now. He’ll soon be able to do it blindfolded. It’s an awkward job, and does nothing for his aches and pains. Once it was connected up we switched the engine on. The problem has been that the ignition warning light would not extinguish once the power was on, but it wasn’t doing that. After all the conversations we’ve had about the D+ wire, even Linda will be an expert at it. Anyway, it was the moment of truth, and MON DIEU the light went out. Hallelujah! Finally, a result, or it seems that way. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a buzz around in the Solent to give Thesee a runabout as the weather forecast is respectable.
Yee haa, look...the light's gone out
Dean celebrated by purchasing the last 16 out of date bottles of San Miguel from the Pump House Café. All for a fiver for charity.
A votre sante
Saffy was following Doctor’s orders and taking it easy after her scary episode earlier this week. She was viciously attacked by another dog whilst we were walking through a park and needed 16 external stitches plus more internally on damaged muscles. We are very pleased and happy to report that she seems to be well on the road to recovery.
Convalescing Sailor Dog
Like I said easy peasy. I fitted the new fuse for the inverter that we have been waiting for. They are expensive but really neat and tidy once in place.
Sunday 14th January... A check of the tides this morning and we had a plan for the day, which was to take Thesee out for a couple of hours around 2pm. Saffy had a walk and Dean amused himself in the meantime by doing a couple of jobs, one being to secure the new printer in place with a bunjee. Yep, that's going nowhere.
After lunch we prepared for our departure. It was an hour before low water and we motored out to the two forts in the Solent. Thesee was amazing, everything seems to be working just fine.....even the AIS after a couple of tweaks. We always seem to have an issue with this every time we do updates to the system. Now we know what to look for, and all we have to do is change the NMEA0183 IN setting back to 38400 baud rate, then switch off and on again. You could say we are becoming technologically proficient, OK maybe that's an exaggerated overstatement.
Here's a couple of photos from our little trip today.
Co-ordinating crew members
IOW Ferry taking the long way round at low tide
The hovercraft was busy
Monday 15th January... Last night we had a storm come through, I was up at 1am after an alarm woke me. The electronic barometer sounded off as the pressure dropped. Now you know it's the Captain here and not the second mate...or the third, as neither would wake for an alarm. Anyway today is finish the inverter and ring main day. I managed to find a new plug socket that takes all sorts of plug types and it has a couple of USB charge ports also. So an easy job today. Remove the old socket cut a larger hole for the new one and connect the wires. All that with out any balls ups. Easy peasy.
Cutting a hole for the new socket
Testing the new socket
Job done!
Like I said easy peasy. I fitted the new fuse for the inverter that we have been waiting for. They are expensive but really neat and tidy once in place.
250 amp inverter fuse on the switched side of the battery isolator
Today has been rain and wind all day but I did manage to do a couple of jobs outside once the rain stopped for a minute. A little more 316 is needed for the next visit!
We've been having a think about our safety equipment today. Here's a short video showing us checking the EPIRB.
We've been having a think about our safety equipment today. Here's a short video showing us checking the EPIRB.
So that was five red flashes at the end of the test. According to the instructions that means a successful test result, the EPIRB is functioning correctly. Also, that's the very first video we've uploaded to Adventures of Thesee blog.
Right now Saffy has had her walk and we're going to Arty's Diner for something to eat a little later. Another bottle of the famously out of date San Miguel is going down a treat while I type this.
