A productive day

After the jollifications and merry making of yesterday, we've buckled down and got on with stuff today, taking advantage of very pleasant though chilly conditions. First off was a trip to Midland Chandlers to get some engine oil; not the cheapest on the system, but helped firstly by an offer of a free 500g tin of stern tube grease with each 5 litre can of oil, and second by the 7.5% discount we get as Mercia moorers. 10 litres of oil and two tins of grease came to £40.

Indeed, we nearly got the stuff even cheaper, as when we approached the cash desk, the guy looked at our Braidbar fleeces and asked if it was to go onto the Braidbar account. I was tempted for just a moment, but I'm just too moral for that sort of dodge.

Back at the boat, it was still a bit early to run the engine (in order to warm up the oil), so I filled in by changing the Seagull IV water filter. It's been running slower and slower recently, a sign that the cartridge was clogging up. By the time I'd done this, it was nearly ten o'clock, so I made an early coffee for us, and drank it whilst reading the i, the full scale Independent not having been available today.

Once the coffee was gone, the engine had been on for around 25 minutes. I lifted the engine boards, and explored the strategically placed nappies. This identified two more weeping joints in the coolant circuits, in addition to one Peter had found and nipped up the other day. I tweaked them both, and hopefully have sorted the problem; if not, they can have a look at it at Braidbar when we go up in the spring, as it will probably mean remaking the joints with extra jubilee clips.

After that, it was  case of running through the familiar routine of pumping out the oil, changing the filter, refilling with clean oil, a quick further pump to bring the last of the dirty stuff out of the pipework, and start the engine. There's always a tense moment while you wait for the new filter to fill and the oil pressure to come back, but it did, as always, and all was well.

I took a few minutes to tighten up the stern gland a fraction, then dipped the oil. It was halfway between the high and low marks on the dipstick, so I popped another half litre in, which should bring it up to full. I'll check it again before we next run the engine.

It took a little while to clear everything up, but the whole job had taken just over an hour.

After lunch, we took a stroll into the village to get some bread and tomatoes for tomorrow, as we'll be tied to the marina waiting for the chairs to come…

/hmm