Condensation

Due to the amount of condensation on the inside of the boat, we were limited to what we could do this weekend. As we lay the false floor, we normally paint the hull sides, give the bottom of the boat and the bottom chine angle the rust treatment but, the condensation was so bad we were just wasting our time and more importantly.......money!

To make progress, Andrea got on with creosoting the floor I'd put together on Friday and we'll have to take it back up again to paint underneath when conditions are better. Meanwhile, I tinkered about in the engine 'ole making the exhaust pipe and various bits and bobs.

The problem we've got now, we seem to have quite a collection of junk in the hold, albeit usefull junk such as an old Stratford stove, various oil drums, a Gardner engine and load of wood I just might need one day. This has to be moved periodically to enable work to progress, so we spend quite a bit of time shifting stuff around, rather like one of those little games we used to have as kid, where you have to shuffle letters round a square frame with only one spare space. Something has got to go!

On Sunday with the exhaust complete, oil in the engine and battery wired up, I thought I'd give the engine a whirl. Well.....It was more of a grunt than a whirl, things wern't spinning quick enough to make it fire. The battery had just come off charge so there's nothing wrong there, the only thing it could be is that with eveything being so cold, the oil had thickend up. Time for a bit heat then, got the blow lamp out (big blow lamp) and gave all the engine a good warming and tried again........no go!
The engine has an hand start facility so I though I'd give it a good hand crank (if you'll pardon the expression) to see how hard it was to turn over. I could spin it faster than the dam starter motor so, it looks like there's something wrong with the newly re-wound motor.
After trying to start the engine several times by hand, I am now completely knackered and calling it a day.......Pub here we come.