Minigem

Regarding my initial post. I have been having trouble with my infernalnet connection, it is a Three mobile wi fi. It has been running slow, cutting out or completely unusable for the last few days. I tried to put some kind of smilie on the post but something else went on and the connection went down. I tried this morning to rectify the problem and the connection went down again and did not return. The gist of it is that row of parties was never intended, therefore would the moderators please delete the smilies as they are totally inappropriate. Thanks. No doubt the problem is caused by the overload of people working from home and people unable to work being online and entertaining themselves. Luckily, I have found a place away from where I live with a decent connection. Regards everybody and stay safe and healthy and hopefully this nightmare will not do too much damage and hopefully the people that need help will get it from our Government.

It just occurred to me in a moment of enlightenment, make the most of it, its not a regular occurrence. Do all the people queuing for hours outside the supermarkets and inside at the tills and rubbing shoulders with all the rest of the madding crowd whilst clearing the shelves of everything are increasing their chances many fold of getting the bug and passing it on to their families? Hmmm, just a thought.

That bridge does have its uses despite what some may think.

I always thought that hire fleets charged full whack road prices for diesel anyway. It is probably doubtful that they pass on any 60/40 discount to the customer anyway.

They are quite handy in the eventuality of all the Country's stocks of loo roll are piled up in selfish peoples houses. The tabloids are best for this use, after all, they caused the panic. Its strange as Montezuma's Revenge is not a symptom of the virus. Its much better to do what I have done. Realising that there may be some disruption due to Brexit I have just put the odd extra can of salmon, bully beef, frozen goods etc into my shopping over many months. As I use my Brexit stock I replace what I have used to keep my stocks up. I have five loo rolls which should last a while and I am not panicking, I went around my little corner shop yesterday and there were loads of loo rolls on the shelf. Look! No panic!

Anyway Smitch. I am going off line now. Best of luck with the problems.

Just looked up the PRM 150 and it is an oil operated gearbox.

That may be a possibility. You could try disconnecting the cable and operating the control lever on the side of the box manually to the full extent of the travel. If you still have to rev the engine to get the prop to turn then I would suggest that the forward drive clutch is worn or there may be a problem with oil mechanism.

Sound like a clutch in the gearbox is worn. When a PRM is in gear the engine is locked to the gearbox and the prop speed goes up and down with engine speed. There should be no revving to get the prop to turn. Is the gearbox topped up with the correct oil?

Is it an oil operated gearbox such as a PRM?

BMC used to use an oil bath air filter back in the stone age. If you could put a picture of the filter casing opened I may be able to confirm if it is one. If it is you just fill it up with oil and as the air passes over the oil it traps the dirt with the oil. Blue smoke would denote that the engine is old and worn and burning oil. Its not good to breath the fumes so it would be best as has been mentioned to pipe the crankcase vent into the air intake to burn the oil vapour. Black smoke from the exhaust denotes the injectors need attention.

If you cant get hand sanitizer I think standard surgical spirit should work ok. under £2 for 200 ml. You could probably stretch it a bit by diluting 50 50 with water. Mind you Aldi's white rum would be cheaper, at least if you catch the virus you could drink it to drown your sorrows.

I think the Stracey Arms is a Sikh temple now.

I remember going there and when I was buying a round of drinks I was asked if anybody on my table had a heart condition, the reply was no. A few minutes later a giant rubber spider was lowered from the rafters. I enjoyed the prank but it somewhat unsettled the ladies.

I have just purchased a Windows 10 laptop, there was a month's free subscription to the WP 365 on it which has now run out. Not needing a massive WP facility and just typing a few letters a year I downloaded Libre Office from the Microsoft shop (shopping bag icon) which is free and does all I need. There are a few handy freebees in the shop and it is well worth looking at.

When re-assembling the hub make sure you push the bearing shell hard onto the ridge inside the hub, I usually do this by pushing the shell into the hub with a vice and then putting an old bearing shell on top of it to push it in even further. Whatever you do, please do not try to wind the bearing into the hub using the castellated nut on the axle as this will damage the bearing surfaces very badly and may cause failure on the road. Incidentally, if you just take an old bearing to a trailer suppliers they will sell you an identical one.

Until you can get into people's thick heads to cover their mouths with a tissue when sneezing and not with their hands so they can spread the droplets all over what they are touching this virus will spread everywhere. Only the other day as I was coming away from the bar some idiot openly sneezed over me, my beer and my mate's beer. What a nice man! Now there are cases in London and with so many people like that around we do not have a chance of containing the virus.

Message sent.

Codswallop!

If it comes around again watch "The Painted Boats" It depicts a story of a family running a horse drawn narrowboat and latterly converted to a motor boat on the canals during WW2. Along with "The Bargee" it shows some interesting shots of the canals in their day. "The Bargee" was a light hearted story with Harry H Corbett but "The Painted Boats" was more historical. Incidentally, and totally off topic (apologies) if you ever get anywhere near a narrowboat with one of those old Bolinder engines as fitted in those days it is a wonderous sound.

I always liked Sooty and the Flowerpot Men. My old dad bless him as he is now gone liked The Magic Roundabout.

Shout to somebody ashore to get a supply of underpants and toilet rolls to drop off a bridge onto your boat.

I know it was only a dream but my advice as I have crossed Breydon many times in all weathers and all times of the day and night. 1 If you are even thinking of crossing Breydon or going through GY buy yourself a decent anchor. Mudweights are exactly what their name says and are not designed to hold a boat in a current. 2 Use a proper anchor warp which should be three times the depth of the water you expect to be cruising in. 3 Unless you are using a complete anchor chain put at least six foot of chain on your anchor before attaching the anchor warp. It may be a subject of discussion on this forum as to if a boat hirer informs the boatyard that they intend to cross Breydon then they should be issued with a proper anchor commensurate with the size of the boat and an anchor warp of the correct size.

I think you are right there mate. Thankfully I am retired now but I used to work with a load of women who in their tiny minds thought East Enders was real and behaved the same as the actors. Bruises have now gone and my brain has now recovered!

I tried to get to Somerton last year and was stopped dead by the phenomenal growth of weed about a mile from the moorings. Unfortunately I do not have a 50 to 100 BHP engine with an enormous prop which would probably bash through it. Now! in the same trip and previous trips I noticed the weed cutter boat complete with the happy, smiling, waving crew moored at the eel catchers hut on the Thurn on quite a few occasions during my two week stay. My questions are: Was the machinery broken? If not, why was the weed cutter not being used? Is there lack of supervision? Nice job if you can get it! I know that BA reads these posts so perhaps they could have a look at the ways our tolls are being wasted.