Day 34 – Friday 26th June – Jobs, Job, Jobs
Last night the heat went down somewhat and the idea was to get up early in the cool of the day and get on with the jobs. But things don’t always turn out like that do they? In reality, by the time we got going it was already heating up, and having realised that I had been sleeping with an unwelcome bedfellow, (although there could have been more bites) I was still a bit annoyed; the shower block at LRB was warmer inside than out and I guess we were both still a bit sleep deprived…
The old AGM battery
Here are the two new batteries awaiting their installation.
The main thing to achieve was to replace the old AGM battery, which was no longer holding its charge too well, with two new ones. This was not the greatest activity for a swelteringly hot day; remove all the bedding/mattresses and access the compartment under our bed where the batteries live; remove old battery, (did I say how heavy these batteries are? No? about 25kg, maybe a bit more) and then the worry as to whether 2 batteries would fit in etc.
Bob wired them in parallel and we altered the aspect of the batteries to get them both in. Had to call into two chandlers to find an extra fitting for the top of the negative port, then got this on. Next find a solution to pack them out so that the batteries don’t move, even if Boni suffers a knock-down or is overturned…. A visit to the local Bricolage (hardware store) saw us buying a long 3m length of 20mm x 60mm of wood (excuse the pun!) as then we did bring it back to the boat and sawed it up into 800mm lengths, screwed them together, made a wedge and packed out the batteries. There was plenty of sawdust on the floor… this is not the first time the cockpit has looked like a chippies yard! This with the existing webbing/strap from the old battery would do the job well.
The next job of putting up a crane on the stern was ditched for today but we did take the dinghy down to have a proper inspection of Jenny Wren and gave Steve a ring whilst down there. No evidence of sinking (!) or excess water in the bilge, checked her battery and the mooring lines – all good.
On return to Boni, the water beckoned and we enjoyed another swim in the river. We tidied up and ate on board, ready for the off tomorrow.