39.12.065N 9.07.517E

We’ve had a busy week this week. The weather has been fantastic, warm and sunny. Unfortunately next week’s forecast is not so good, overcast and windy. But the forecast keeps changing so who knows what we’ll get.

We started the week by going shopping. First stop was the chandlery to check out the prices of a new hot water tanks, then onto Lidl for our weekly food shop.

The old water heater tank was….. err “old” (about 20 years old we think). Although in the short term we could have repaired it, we were concerned about what else would fail / corrode and how long the repair would last for. Hence we would probably need a new tank in the next couple of years. After investigating hot water tanks (we are now experts in all makes and specifically which ones will fit in our boat), we came to the conclusion that the tank we would buy was one made in Italy. The price was naturally cheapest in Italy and after some more negotiation with the chandlery, we decided to bite the bullet and buy a new tank now. Having ordered the tank we then had to wait for it to arrive. So in the meantime we cracked on with other jobs.

We started by cleaning the decks. This meant we could then empty the sail locker and V-berth onto the decks to give everything a good airing. While we were out cleaning the decks we spotted a diver about to clean the propeller of the boat next door. With a bit of negotiation we arranged for him to clean our hull and propeller at the same time. Top priority was making sure the shower was totally ready for use including fitting the new shower drain pump. All it needed now was hot water!!

On Friday the new tank arrived (a few days earlier than expected!). Fitting it took one very long day but by evening we finally had hot water coming out of the taps! We were especially pleased that all our plumbing joints worked first time with no leaks. The longest part of the task was physically fitting it to the boat to ensure it does not move no matter what angel we are at. The following day we plumbed the connection to the engine (for the non-boaty people we heat the water either via an electric immersion heater when in marinas or via the engine coolant when we are motoring). It took a little while to bleed the coolant but we were once again rewarded with a system with no leaks first time. We now have a shiny new stainless steel tank with the latest in insulation and a very special feature – it doesn’t leak J

In the evening we fitted our new shower curtain and both had long hot showers in our refurbished shower. Absolutely wonderful!

Now all we need to do is all those jobs we should have started weeks ago so we can get sailing…

Koshka has bravely slept guarding his toy as chaos reigned on the boat during the hot-water-tank-gate affair.

The new (very) shinny hot water tank J