grendel

well you know I talked about those deck lights and how small they were at 1/12 scale, well after a long trip from china the led's have arrived, the wires are hair fine, the led's themselves are tiny. but stick them on a 3v supply and they shine out.

good to meet you too, I guess you were lucky to get away without getting a paintbrush pressed into your hand, I also wished I could have spent a bit longer chatting, but it really was busy as you saw.

it seems I only had time to take pictures of the skeg as I was measuring it up to make a drawing. you can clearly see the part cut out that needed replacement parts welded in, it was surmised that something had at some point caught in the prop and caused the damage there, thus allowing for the rust to set in.

i'm up for tug of war - tie the rope round me and I will be anchor.

link updated

I turned up having driven straight up after work Friday, I didnt get the chance to take many pictures. among the many things I did was measuring up the skeg to produce drawings should a replacement ever be needed, working on the heater, getting it positioned, ducted, exhaust connection etc, it fought us every inch of the way, one of the ducts to the rear had split where it came through the bulkhead, so this had to be re-routed to gain an extra 2 inches to get it further through to connect to the undamaged section. planing hull patches down ready for sanding, cleaning up the area to be welded, it was non stop from 8am until i had to leave at 7.30 pm, i had a good 3 hour run home, so just have to get everything I need to do this weekend done in just the one day.

my apologies, tomorrow I will be doing a quick run up from work to put a day in helping Griff and Robin.

well last night I had the dreaded bulb failed dipped beam message, opened up the cover at the back of the headlight and the bulb started working again. got back in moved off and the warning is back, checked again and it started working, once again it stops - drove home called into halfords and got a pair of new bulbs. swapped out the broken one no problem, came to do the other and the plastic connector just crumbles to dust in my hand- leaving me with 2 bare spade terminals, got it all working and have ordered a pair of replacement terminals, so thats another job - about time too as one terminal had obviously been running hot (by the look of the blued terminal on the bulb). It doesnt really surprise me as these lights have been on every time the car has been used - for 17 years, these connectors disintegrating is common after this time.

Asda sunflower oil ?

there is of course the other option with less particulates, a greener fuel overall as it can be grown (isnt natural gas a fossil fuel the same as diesel) and that is sunflower oil, currently in asda at £3.75 for a 5 litre bottle, maybe not useable in the most modern diesels, but in the older ones, even at a 50/50 mix works out considerably cheaper.

just to be complete, I went out at lunch time and did the last remaining bulb (the one that didnt get an advisory) and that wasnt as bad as the other front one, but was worse than the two rear bulbs that although a lighter shade, had not crazed. so if you do have orange bulbs in your car, it might be worth checking them to make sure they are still properly orange.

as long as its cheaper....

the way I read the report was that they were using netting, but had not followed the guidelines set down by the rspca for the type of netting used, to me this seemed to be the crux of the matter. I can see that netting off some of the area to prevent nesting sites being buried by the new sand cover is a reasonable precaution, but it does strike me that if they had got their act together and started the project as soon as the birds had left on their migration, they could probably have completed it before the birds returned - or is that just wishful thinking?

so like a good Robin (attention to small details), I went and purchased new indicator bulbs, all round, changing the rear ones wasnt too bad, just take off the speaker covers, unclip the rear speakers and then remove the bulb holder, and put in a new bulb. the front wasnt as simple, I could see them, but there seemed no way to get there, they were buried behind things, with cable looms and everything in between, the passenger side seemed hard enough (that was the only one not flagged in the MOT) but the driver side was even worse access with the washer bottle filler neck also in the way. so Last night I found some youtube videos on how to change the bulb, general consensus was remove the back cover off the headlight cluster giving you an extra inch of space, but then I spotted a comment underneath, someone said remove the washer bottle filler neck, its held in place by 1 screw, and is a push fit into the pipework below, so when I arrived at work this morning, that is what I did, it gives great access, so in a short time the bulb was changed. the old bulb in that housing was the worst of all of the bulbs I had to replace, its orange coating looked like a tiger loaf, all cracked and crazed, no wonder then that the orange wasnt orange enough. so the moral of the story is, if your indicators are the clear lens sort, with coloured bulbs, and they dont seem to be orange enough, it may be time for some new ones.

in just over a month I have jayne on hire so I will be able to let you know.

martham use their own staff to go under the bridge, I have personally been taken through in janet at 5 foot 11 inches, wouldnt think she would have got through at much less. martham do have their own gauge at their slipway that shows the bridge clearance. their boats are all a lot narrower than most other broads boats - only about 9 foot 6" wide.

To fit nicely into this thread of car talk, my 17 year old volvo with 174,000 miles had its MOT today, - It passed with just a few advisories - Apparently the orange coloured bulbs can fade, I will need 3 new ones to clear that advisory, the rest of the issues were all suspension, but only keep an eye on items at the moment, from rusting rear coil springs to misting from the front shocks, plus slight play from the rear anti sway bar linkage ball joint, nothing unexpected on a car of this mileage, nothing that doesnt need just keeping an eye on and maybe replacing before next year if it deteriorates.

nothing beats at the end of a long drive up to Norfolk, popping into the Mcdonalds near brundall for a big breakfast or big mac - well when I say nothing beats it, its a great relief when getting to the end of the journey starving hungry - at any other time almost anything beats it. pretty much the only time I go to McD's is on a long drive, its quick its easy and only adds a few minutes to the trip.

Not so, just some of 'em, and thankfully a minority. so only a minority of sailies need to know that all stinky helms are idiots? do all the rest already know this?

I think most boatyards want to know if you are using one of these, mainly so that they can prioritise any engineer to you if you have battery problems.

ah but the middle east deserts get it all in just one day - every 3rd or 4th year, the Broads gets it as a constant drizzle, plus they dont have the evaporation problems that the desert does.

the ones in our office are the intelligent sort that check the patient, then tell you if the patient needs it

we have one in each of our offices, they are appearing everywhere now, so much so that in first aid training at work we are told to ask abnyone in the area to go get the first aid kit and defibrilator almost before phoning the ambulance..

where else do they expect them to get water, surely its not down to the villagers - its down to the local water authority.