I started at 8am at Streethay to get on with making the boat ready for the water... Lots to do, including doing some last minute weather proofing with running a bead of silicone along the gunnel joint at the stern of the boat where it's gone a bit holey, as well as moving the massive amount of waste wood from the roof into the car for disposal, moving all the supplies for ongoing work onboard, putting the weedhatch back in, and emptying the loo etc...
I paid the bill as well, which came to about what I'd expected. Definitely can recommend Streethay, the people were brilliant, especially the two Rays (boss and welder expert) - everyone was friendly and the facilities were really good, including the ability to live onboard.
One of the things moved on board were the doors for the cooker:
Plus an awful lot of wood and other materials - saves carrying them from the car when I'm working at my normal Alvecote base:
Believe it or not, I'd done loads of tidying to get to this state, it feels like I'll be living in a building site for a while!
I managed to find time to lay a layer of fibreglass on the roof hole - there's a plywood reinforcing section in place on the inside, with silicone bonding agent to hold it in place. I'll fill the depression in this hole with PU foam, like the rest of the double-skinned cabin, and then glass over the top later on...
I plumbed the basin in too, only to find the cold flexible tail as supplied with it, is broken and spouts water! I'll have to pick some more up from Screwfix.
In terms of plumbing, I also bought some fittings and pipe and connected the waste for the bath, as well as adding inserts to the Speedfit and connecting the bath mixer - that all works fine, but I suspect I'll have to make the bath 'unlevel' with the walls in order to get it to drain - perhaps I should have put it the other way around!
In the face of concerns from members of Canalworld, I decided not to use the shower sump box, but to use the old pump and get it overhauled at some point soon. This is mainly due to concerns over the lid not being sealed very well and leaking! The basin will drain via a convenient hull fitting not far away, where an old vanity sink was connected.
I've got some plans for the basin waste, but we'll see how it works out...
The last thing I managed after re-floating (and she does still float!) was to chop the flue pipe from the old stove down to size and get one end held in place with heatproof silicone - at the top end. The bottom will be sealed with traditional fireproof rope and then silicon to assist.
So another busy day, with a planned early start on Sunday to get going!
