Bartimaeus

Sunday was quite a warm day, but by recent standards quite cool. I continued to find it difficult to relax because any way I looked there was a job that needed doing.

Once I had put away everything I could find a home for, there was nothing for it but to turn the selection of shelf pieces in to actual shelves in the cupboard that used to be above the calorifier (hot water tank).  We've never made good use of this space, but it was also ineffective as an airing cupboard - the lagging on the tank was too good.  The first shelf took a while, but once I got going the rest were much quicker.

The first use of the shelves was to house the remaining items displaced by the heat-pump.  Some further re-arrangement may happen, but some things are still where they got placed when we first came aboard nearly five years ago, so no promises.

The heat pump is called a "Shoebox", but there is room in that space for shoes for a troop of clowns.  It occupies some former storage space, but it was always awkward to use and so was poorly utilised.

The heat pump is not fully commissioned as yet, so we are using the immersion heater for hot water, and the weather is providing us with plenty of heat in the cabin.  By bedtime yesterday we were able to close the doors for the first time since our return - all the windows stayed open though.

When Clare started to make dinner the previous night she discovered there was no power to the oven or hob.  After a fruitless search in the engine bay, I found the circuit breakers in the electric cupboard.  The door has coat hooks on it and the rear steps stop the coats moving far.  With no coats transferred yet, opening it was easy, and power was soon restored for cooking.

Before all the work, there used to be a prominent switch to select the bow or stern electric hook-up points for shore power.  I spotted during the search for oven power that under the new arrangements, this has disappeared deeper in to the cupboard.  I realised that I could just about reach it by opening the panel above, but it was a stretch and there was a scratchy edge.

While the relevant equipment was to hand, I made a further small modification.  By cutting away the upper shelf at the back, and smoothing the edge it is now slightly easier to reach the selector.

I also realised that included in the electric screwdriver set was the piece I needed to resolve the life-ring problem. I fished the ring out of the bow locker and returned it to its usual place on the tiller.

We got a visit from Caroline this morning to welcome us back on board - with flowers and chocolates!  We heard some more details of the series of unexpected events that have (rightly) taken their attention away from us.  Rob wasn't able to make it today due to a problem with charging on the electric van, I cheekily asked if he knew anyone who was good at that sort of thing.  He hopes to be able to come and sort a few things for us tomorrow.

So this afternoon we walked in to Droitwich Spa again.  The recently refurbished St Richard's House has a small, but interesting exhibit on the history of salt in the town.  The brine streams in the area are saltier than the Dead Sea, and have formed an integral part of the town for millennia.

Another exhibit commemorated the long wave radio transmitters that have been a more recent feature, though the transmitters were finally closed down on Saturday.  The impressive control console still looks less complicated than the inside of our electrics cupboard.