Hot spots

Yesterday I acquired one of those new 4GEE hotspot wireless gadgets.  So this is the first blog entry on the train.  Very good it is too.  Where have you been all my life.  The last week on board has helped out with a few things in terms of understanding the boat and what needs to be done.  Great piece of advice - before starting the rebuild of a boat live on it.  You will discover so many things about day to day life, where to put stuff, where to put plugs, lights, etc etc that you will make fewer mistakes when the real build comes along.

Things I have learnt this week.

1)  The beds are cold because behind the beds is very little other than a few poorly fitted boards and the hull.  I took the draws out last night to inspect.  Action - when insulation goes in, some effort behind the cabin beds will pay dividends.

2) Heat sinks.  The wardrobes are equally poorly dealt with in terms of wood between them and the hull.  They get very cold and attention will be needed here or they will simply act as heat sinks.

3) Floor - very cold even with underlay and carpet.  Remember that the ship has no form of heating at the moment but still the floors get very cold.  Under floor insulation (always planned) is a must.

4) Lights - it surprised me how little was actually needed.  The low energy light bulbs that seem to do a poor job in houses do a great job on the ship.  All the rooms are quite small and the ceilings low.  Single low energy bulbs do a great job.

5) Everything not secured makes a noise outside - tie everything down.  Bungees on the doors as well.

But overall I have been quite content there is week.  The whole ship is now relatively clean and tidy and the second set of cabin bed draws cleaned and stuffed with stuff.  There is a lot of storage in those draws.

Some photos

The new shelving with tools now arranged to ensure I know where everything is.  I appear to have more hammers than B&Q.

Moving my 1950s horse.  That caused quite a lot of laughs.  Everyone remembers these at their school.  What people do not realise is how heavy they are.  Makes sense when you think that it could be hit by a fat kid at 10 miles an hour and has to stay in place.  This is one horse that you won't find in a burger!

And finally the cabin (home).  The wood cleaned up nicely on the beds.  New bed boards were built to enable the mattresses to breath better.  Not a difficult job.