Toilet fishing

X86
Rich Carey
Mon 18 Jun 2018 06:49
Today was big shopping day. I had my super trolley loaded to the max, biggest packpack overflowing, and two big boxes of cornflakes under my arm. I still need to do another shop, but I'm a good two thirds there.

Next I had to sort out the whole of the Starboard side. Small cabin, kitchen, Chances double, and his toilet. Three hours later, I'd swept through, sweeping as I swept, and was in the toilet. Disaster (!) - while spraying water around and into the toilet, the plastic insert cap, in the head of the flexible tube extendable tap, flew off, straight into the toilet. Unbelievable - it looked like I was going to have to dissemble the entire, hateful (but very useful), toilet. However, first I went fishing - I could just feel the cap around the bend, nestled against the macerator blades. Yes, I've got my hand jammed around the Ubend ... me and these toilets - geeze!
I do love a bit of fabrication, so before pulling the whole toilet apart, I made a curved wire Gizmo to try and coax the barsteward cap out. For about 45 minutes I was head down in the bowl, with my big yellow spotlight precarious balanced next to my left ear, highly illuminating the glory of the scene - the Gizmo in my left hand plunged in the murky waters, and my long nose grabbing pliers hovering in my right. Man o man, I must have see the thing peeping out 50 times, before I eventually snagged it - with a giant whoop of delight! Emergency over, dissembly avoided - so just a minor swim in the toilet!

Ah, I've just remembered an interesting success from yestertag. Whenever I'm stern too, sailors walking past can have a good nose at the back end of x86, which is quite busy. There's the Hydrovane, the outboard on its solid bracket, tender on special strops I made, and then the watt&sea hydro-generator. Many conversations have resulted, and I was telling one guy that the w&s was a bit of a disappointment, as it was hard to hold down against the water pressure (there's a rope pulley system to pull it down), and when it lifted even slightly, the blades cavitated. He then said that friends of his had the same issue until they discovered the hidden holes for a lock down pin ... well knock me down with a feather, I searched and found the hidden holes ... what a turn up! I then made a pin from a six inch copper wood screw. I sawed off the threaded section, and tapped the end for a 4mm nut (haven't done that since metalwork at school 47 years ago!) - it'll work fine until something better can be acquired.

Next up was a safety issue. A while back I fitted a switch to activate the gas solenoid in the forward gas locker. I used a switch with a red light in it, so that if after use, I forget to turn it off, the light .... However, I've subsequently still left the thing turned on overnight, on two occasions. It's not a massive issue, as I also personally fitted a super screamer of a gas detector, when I had all the pipes changed in St Lucia, but it's still bad. The issue is the switch position, which is only in plain sight, if you are under 5'8" and I'm 5'9" - yep, eye line issue. So, today I added a second (bigger), red light in a very clear eye line of both shorties and bean poles. It's next to the fridge, hence the picture of the fridge in a rather odd position, as I was wiring behind it.

Bosun into kennel today - it'll be a bit tough for him for the next 9 weeks, but he has a stellar life, so if he could complain, he really shouldn't. And then its the Aussies in airbourne prision, for all of two days, flying here from the far side!

All's well on x86, prepping hard for boarder's.
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