Tea up

I have been looking around for a butane cylinder so that I could get the cooker up and running but there don't seem to be any spare ones about so last weekend I had to bite the bullet and buy one the law of sod says that two free ones will be along shortly but hey ho. The next problem was to obtain a suitable kettle everybody and his dog will sell you an electric one but try asking for a proper kettle that goes on a gas cooker, eventually found one at a local branch of B&M made in China but it's a kettle. Monday morning saw the gas cylinder installed and the pipework tested with soapy water I found a couple of small leaks which only needed nipping up a bit more the cooker works fine and best of all I can make tea on board no more hot water in thermos flasks.

Kettle is on

Gas locker

Now that I can boil water the fitting of hoses is much easier just dip the end in hot water so the next job was to replace the hoses for the anchor well drains the existing hoses had seen better days. The hoses are only short and 1.5" hose is not particularly flexible over that length, I found the easiest way to do this was to remove the drain fittings in the deck first then clean it all then up put it back through the deck and fit the new hose to it then slacken the nut right back and push the fitting up, run some mastic around the sealing face then warm up the other end of the hose and push it onto the overboard skin fitting, the nut for the deck fitting can then be tightened down, fit the Jubilee clips and the jobs done. I think the explanation makes sense I suppose a few more photographs would have been a good Idea.

Existing hoses

New hose on starboard side

Now that the anchor well drain hoses have been renewed I am able to get on with the rest of the fore cabin these hoses are pretty well inaccessible once the locker front panels are in place. For the moment I am fitting the original front panels to see how they fit and if all is well I intend to line them with van lining carpet which should give a nice warm feel to the fore cabin. I managed to get the starboard side in place today the fit was not brilliant but I think that with a bit of fettling and once the lining carpet is glued in place they will look quite presentable. 

Starboard side lockers temporarily in place

I have not decided on a colour yet I was thinking of possibly a darker shade of grey to that used for the head lining.

This weekends homework job is to produce an adaptor to connect two different size hoses so that I can complete the engine sea water system I have sourced a piece of 32mm nylon rod which arrived today the minimum order was 500mm so there will be a bit left over but these things are always handy to have.