A busy day and some maintenance.

Wednesday 21st May.

What a beautiful morning, after overnight rain there was lovely warm sunshine bathing the marina.

You can just see the stern of Bracken, second boat from left with red tiller arm.

Nice picnic area with tables and benches just out of camera shot on the left.

A while ago I turned off the diesel at the tank because I thought there was traces of diesel in the bilges, then I got ill and went home vowing to look at the problem next time.

Well, in my absence Graham has been down in the deepest darkest regions of the bilges and had a clean up!

He tried nipping up all the connections but still wetness appeared as soon as I turned the diesel on but I managed to locate the problem as coming from the top of the fuel filter assembly. Specifically it was where the injectors feed back into the top of the filter assembly through the large banjo fitting. Well even with new copper washers in place it wouldn't stop weeping, mainly due to the thread being stripped, therefore unable to tighten it down. So, a replacement fuel filter assembly is required. Still at least we know what the problem is. 

Looking at the state of the filter assembly and the way the pipe obscures the center bolt i'm wondering when the filter was last changed? Hmmm, we'll see when i remove it. 

Graham and Jaq came over late afternoon and we looked at positioning two storage boxes on the rear deck.

The idea being to provide storage for logs and coal and possibly tools and as the rear deck is quite large being a cruiser stern thats the best place for them.

As you can see from the two pictures, the stern on Bracken is large and empty, ok if you're entertaining but otherwise pretty wasted space, so Graham, bless him, found a couple of matching boxes just the right size and height to be useful storage and about the right height for sitting on too.

Ever wished you'd picked up old rags and tools before taking pictures??

Notice the box under the window- another of Grahams finds off Ebay, just the right height not to obscure the window, and bolted to the deck for security.

After deciding on the best position for the boxes we drilled through the bottom of both boxes to mark the deck plates for drilling. Graham's going to take the boxes back to his place for painting. they've had a coat of etching primer and black primer, next he's going to top coat them. 

I really appreciate all the work he's done for me whilst i've been unwell, he's been an absolute diamond geezer!! And I bet he tells me off for saying that. Embarrassed or what !

Thursday 22nd May.

Im back home in Kent now, well with it being bank holiday weekend the traffic will probably be horrendous so l decided to come home before. Not a bad journey, just a few minutes short of 3 hours, l bet it's different tomorrow. 

I have a couple of appointments next week, so next visit to Bracken will be around 6/7 th of June to move her down to Fradley for the work to be done starting on the 9th.

Bye for now :)