01/07/10 In view of the poor performance of the England squad during the World Cup, (and because it's still chucking it down with rain here), I thought I would insert this You Tube video to cheer us all up - and to start off the new month with a giggle!
Sorry, video no longer available!
02/07/10 Another day spent in the engine compartment, once again removing the Eberspächer unit (pictured right) which was still not functioning correctly. On completion of the overhaul last week, and refitting the unit, a new fault manifested itself and since then the damn thing has done something different on each start up. It's basically just a jet engine combustion chamber and therefore simple to 'fix'.....it just has so many built in safety cut-outs which are a pain to trace. Anyway........at the moment it's running but not heating any water, or the water isn't circulating which causes the temperature sensor to initiate the shut down procedure. So..... either the water pump is defective or the system is air-locked - maybe? I think?
03/07/10 Straight after breakfast......emptied the cockpit locker and squeezed inside to undo the pipe into the top of the hot water tank and release the trapped air. A couple of false starts later and Bingo! the Eberspächer was working as it should.....and I have hot water again! Cleaned up and went into Erakulam with Graham, Roger and Astrid to get essentials such as potatoes, bread and eggs because there is a general strike on Monday (as there was last Monday), in a protest against fuel price increases. So no shops will be open, nor any form of transport running.
07/07/10 I still have hot water! The air conditioning unit is running well and keeping the boat lovely and cool - I generally have the temperature set to 25 ish during the day and lower it to 20 at night. With these settings, it is still extracting between 10 and 15 litres of water per day from the atmosphere which of course helps enormously with combating mould and fungus within the boat. Yesterday I tackled another job which has been bothering me somewhat - the starboard genoa sheet winch was becoming stiff to operate when we were crossing the Arabian Sea, so it had to come apart and be inspected.....but I have no manual for this type of winch, so it was a case of making it up as I went along. It's all done now......see!
10/07/10.......and it's Friday again - the weekends come round very quickly! Everyone seems to be leaving to either go travelling up country or back to the UK, Graham has gone to Thailand for a few weeks, Roger has gone to England, Davina and Anthony are going back to the UK, so is Liz. Terry and Fiona, Michelle and Pilar are all going travelling for varying periods.....there will soon be only me left here!! Actually there will still be a few of us here and most of us are getting a bit listless and wanting to move on but can't because of the monsoon. The bar is empty on most nights - it's very clean, is air conditioned - but it's just a room. It cannot be described as a bar because it has no character, no music, no spirits, no draught beer, no crisps, pickled onions, eggs or any other snack, very little in the way of soft drinks, wine has to be ordered in and beer is from bottles kept in a small fridge - when they're gone......you've had it!!
11/07/10 Decanted 100 litres of diesel from jerrycans into my tank first thing this morning. Nazar should have delivered it yesterday at 10am but didn't arrive until 7.30pm, by which time it was too dark to do anything. Fuel here costs 50 rupees a litre (that's delivered to the boat inclusive of Nazar's taxi and labour costs), which works out at 71p per litre. I have no idea how that compares with today's prices in the UK?
12/07/10 At 9.22am local time (4.52am BST) the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched it's PSLV rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, (the Indian equivalent of NASA's Cape Kennedy) which is northeast of my present position and about 80 kilometres north of Chennai on the east coast. It's payload of five satellites were also successfully deployed, including AISSat 1, a Norwegian Government satellite which will track shipping fitted with AIS transponders.......so look out you boaties.....Big Brother is watching you!!
Spain are the world champion football team.....congratulations! Commiserations to the Dutch side (who I thought would win). I didn't go and watch the match as kick-off was at midnight local time - and I'm tucked up in bed with my book at that time of night! But I have read the newspaper reports of the game this morning.
Went into town late afternoon with Astrid to get a bit of shopping and an early dinner/late lunch in the Hotel Ceylon - which has become a bit of a favourite haunt with the yotties here - you can get tandoori chicken, curried chicken, chicken biryani, chicken masala, chicken this, chicken that.......fortunately I like chicken and also have the necessary Haynes Workshop Manual.
26/07/10 All quiet.......except for the incessant squawking of the resident crow population, and each day blends into the next with very little variation. Jordan paid a visit to the local hospital this morning for advice on his ongoing toe problem (see log entry for 09/12/09) and is now on a course of antibiotics pending yet another operation. A little excitement a couple of days ago, when a non-rally sailing yacht turned up! She is German flagged and apparently sailed here from the Chagos Islands - perhaps I'll find out more later.
28/07/10 The last two nights have brought some heavy rainfall, with stronger winds than usual which have caused the boat to slew around a bit. I'm hoping that it's the worst we are going to get. It seems that the UK is experiencing a flood of fake one pound coins, with something like 41 million now in circulation (about 1 in 30) and that the Royal Mint may have to withdraw the coin and re-mint? They were always too heavy to carry around anyway!!
Image From the Daily Mail online.
It seems that I was tempting providence with the weather.......we had another downpour around 10am this morning, accompanied by strong(ish) winds, which lasted about an hour or so. In the early afternoon, I went with Jordan, Leah and Astrid to the Sridar Cinema in Ernakulam to see the just released (not until 20th August in the UK) film 'Salt', starring Angelina Jolie - not a favourite actress of mine, but it passed an hour or two, and at 70 rupees (0.96p) for a balcony seat, it sure beats the cinema prices in good old England!
29/07/10 Another 'good' guy, my old boss George has passed away, and again no-one thought to tell me. I heard the week old news through the Mediterranean grapevine.
31/07/10 Black Tot Day. (click) Forty years ago today, the Admiralty stopped the tot - a black day indeed! If I were now in the Caribbean, I would perhaps be making for the second most prestigious yacht club in the world, (here), but as I am not, I just had to toast "The Queen, God Bless Her", with a tot of Wood's Rum from my dwindling supply!
For previous logs, click Here
.JPG)
