Jacks, Cranes and truckmobiles
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Fri 9 Dec 2011 09:19
Perhaps I should start writing crossword clues? Be that as it may, and moving swiftly on:
John the GRP has been wanting to raise the boat about six inches or so, to get underneath the keels to paint them and to move the drums supporting the boat so he can do some repair work around the rudder skegs. Also of course, to drop the rudder posts out and replace them.The first idea was to jack the boat up, but whilst we have jacks that are man enough for the job, 'she'll noo take it Captain'. There isn't sufficient rigidity in the hulls, even when the jacks were carefully placed underneath the frames.
John's plan was to lift 'one corner' at a time. Options discussed were crane (too expensive and overkill), a truck with a crane (finding one with a high enough load capacity was a problem) and finally somebody came up with the idea of a forklift truck.
It was arranged for twelve (ish, this is Fiji) today. John knows the boss of the firm, and a price was fixed for the job, regardless of how long it took, the proviso was the forklift had to be available. Unfortunately, mid morning an unloading job at the depot came up, and the job was rescheduled for later in the afternoon. However, a phone call about 3pm told us that the forklift wasn't coming today and it remains unclear when it will be available. Initially tomorrow (Saturday) was discussed, but John wasn't too keen because 'nobody works at the weekend'. A bit later, he had second thoughts and said he would do the job whenever the forklift was available. He'll call me, he says, when he hears. Actually, he's one of the very few people out here who do.
Watch this space for no doubt some slightly alarming photos!
On the Kindle front, after a lengthy Skype phone call, we've established that if the orange charging light hasn't turned green after about 8 hours, then the battery is probably low. I have now charged it via the usb port on the confuser and guess what? Correct. Another lengthy call today. Now one minor irritation is on my Ipad, I can't seem to access my Skype account to top it up. No problem, download skype onto the pc, install and sign in. Ah yes, the password? Well I could change it, but then I'd have to remember what I changed it to then change it on the Ipad and then the Mac lapdancer, when I eventually get that back. Ah, an update there. A 'Dead on arrival' email was sent to Apple as soon as the new chip/board failed to work. This is not that uncommon, and there is a 'code' on the received report that the Apple Reseller has to send when the shipment arrives. The middle of next week.....apparently.
--
http://roastbeefonsundays.blogspot.com/