Braunston Workingboat Show

Captains Log


Canal Date                 23rd June 2011
Travels                       1 1/2 Miles
Current Location      Braunston

Summer Solstice - The longest day and therefore the shortest night. Not for me, I have developed a cold, I was awake much of the night with a sore throat and blocked nose and sinus pain. I know, I am a wimp. I got out of bed at 7.15 this morning, I had had enough by then. I thought I may be better in a chair that rather than lying down. Now because I had a bad night and woke up early, I woke up grumpy. She soon followed me out of bed.

After breakfast we moved the boat to a better mooring. Only a few hundred yards, and then we went to Braunston. We called into the pub and had a beer and ice-cream. That helped my sore throat for a while.

Wednesday - After breakfast I turned my attentions to the toilet vent pipe. In the warm weather the toilet vent smells every time the toilet is flushed. I have tried all of the chemicals and potions available to various levels of disappointment. I have now found that there is a carbon filter that can be fitted in line. This could be the answer. Before I shell out £80.00 I want to make sure that I can fit the filter without major works to the boat. The vent pipe is hidden in the substantial construction of the bed. It is not the easiest part of the boat to get to. After a lot of stripping away trim and constructional timber I found the vent pipe. I thought that this was going to be the hardest part of the job but when I did find it, it turned out to be different to what I had expected. The pipe is 2” gas pipe, not the ¾ rubber hose that I imagined that it would be. This would make it very difficult to go from the steel pipe down to the ¾” fittings on the vent filter. Job abandoned for the time being. When I re-assembled the bed, I made sure that I converted the top to an easy access inspection cover for later use. After a complete failure at the back of the boat, I turned my attentions to the front. The Maxi-view aerial that was original fitment had never performed well so I thought it may be a good idea to feed the signal amp direct from the external TV aerial. That way it could be piped throughout the boat. After spending an hour or so empting the cupboard, removing the door, removing the access panels that I fitted previously, making all the correct fitting to the co-ax. It was no better! It would appear that either the maxi-view amp only works with the maxi-view aerial or is in fact not working at all. I ended up putting everything back to how it was.

A complete day of working on the boat and nothing at all achieved. So no change there then!

I am still just about alive; I have at least triple pneumonia, gangrene of the throat, and headaches in both my chest & head. And to make matters worse I have a snotty nose! Needless to say, I slept a lot in between working on the boat.