I didn't mean to but...

Slipping

2011-08-03T16:23:00.002+01:00

Here is a quick clip showing LJ on her way down the slip, and back into the drink.

No sudden dramatic drop or anything.

That's John you can see pacing up and down, itching to get at the controls.

End of

2011-08-02T10:22:00.002+01:00

Lady Jane is now sold, for scrap. The deal was done yesterday.

On the plus side, the combination of the sheer size of her and the current high price of scrap steel means I do at least walk away with some cash, less that I'd have liked but not a complete loss.

I've spent a busy week stripping out everything of value, including my tools and equipment, and stashing it in the container I'm renting at Hythe Marine Park.

The house is also bulging with all kinds of stuff from the galley and accommodation spaces.

The next stage will be to sort through all the stuff I've rescued, and separate it out into things I want to keep, things I will sell on eBay and things to bin.

The container is pretty full, so it's going to take a while...

Thanks

2011-07-29T06:18:00.003+01:00

A heartfelt thanks to everyone for their kind and supportive comments.

I'm sorry for not replying to you all as I normally do, but I've been busy getting all my tools and equipment off of Lady Jane.

It's amazing just how much I've amassed over the years.

By the time Lady Jane is sold, all my stuff will have been stripped out and the boats systems left pretty much like she was when I bought her.

She will go for scrap, as I see no end in sight to the spending, even after the hull repair is paid for. I just don't have that kind of money.

The end of Lady Jane

2011-07-25T10:41:00.003+01:00

No, it's not a prank.

With Lady Jane now out of the water, and her hull properly cleaned off, it's obvious the hull is severely corroded. The jetwash alone blew a few holes in the hull!

It's a fact that the hull is too far gone for me to be able to afford a proper repair.

She is to be patched up, the good stuff stripped out, dumped back in the water and sold for scrap.

Obviously there is a lot to deal with here, which will take time.

It's a very sad moment, both for me and for all who have worked so hard on her, but the fact is one private person, with limited funds, cannot really stay on top of such a huge undertaking.

I have no real regrets, and consider I've had a huge amount of fun and learning over the last seven years. Plus, of course, I've made some valuable friends.

This is not the end of the dream, just the realisation that Lady Jane is not the vessel to deliver on the dream.

I'm already thinking of my next boat....

Inside

2011-07-22T09:58:00.001+01:00

I can hardly believe it myself, to see Lady Jane actually inside a shed!

Hythe marine park makes the old girl look quite small really.

There had been some discussion about possibly cutting the mast off, or at least trimming it, but in the end she fitted right under with no problem at all.

Only just though.

I'd say that if you have a boat in the Southampton or Solent area, and are looking to get her lifted out the water, speak to the guys here. If you mention that Tim from Lady Jane sent you, you are sure to get a good deal.

These guys are more than happy to assist with some of the work that I need doing, and are equally happy if I do stuff for myself.

The hull and engine room fittings work I'm leaving to the experts, in the long run it will be cheaper for me. The rest I'll do myself.

Early morning

2011-07-20T13:15:00.001+01:00

Here is Southampton Water, first thing in the morning.

It is such fun having a different view from Lady Jane, for a change.

'Proper' work will commence shortly.

Queen Mary 2

2011-07-18T17:00:00.001+01:00

Being at Hythe Marine Park provides an ideal opportunity for a bit of ship spotting.

Here you see the Queen Mary 2 nosing her way out of Southampton, bound for more northern climes.

I have spent a few pleasant evenings on my back deck in the late afternoon sun, with the marine radio on in the background, so I know which vessels are about, and a cool beer to hand, simply watching the world go by.

Work....

2011-07-15T11:32:00.000+01:00

Here's another view of Lady Jane, taken just after she was taken out of the water.

All that marine growth is now gone, built up over the years since I came round from Fareham over four years ago.

The people standing to the left there give some idea of the sheer size of the vessel.

I have quite a list of things that need doing.

Work, work, work. Fun!

Slipping and siding

2011-07-14T11:54:00.001+01:00

With Lady Jane now out of the water, the next step is to clean her bottom and assess what needs doing from there.

As soon as Lady Jane has been cleaned up, she will then be side-slipped, using the railway tracks you can see, into the big shed there.

Boats which don't have tall masts like mine go into a slightly less tall, but much larger, shed.

I'm very impressed by the apparent ease of the whole operation, and the folks at Solent Refit have done a sterling job so far.

Everything about this place is on such a vast scale, it's a little hard to believe. By their standards, Lady Jane is not that big!

Out!

2011-07-13T10:44:00.001+01:00

LJ is out the water

Check her out

The trip

2011-07-12T09:59:00.002+01:00

I thought it might be fun to make a clip of our short jump across to Hythe last week.

This is really as a result of John's request to replay the journey.

It sort of worked from the webcam images...

The wobbly images are probably on account of the webcam being vibrated while the picture was being taken.

New berth

2011-07-11T11:36:00.002+01:00

Here is Lady Jane in her new, temporary, berth.

On Thursday we moved the old girl round from her mooring on the River Itchen and across Southampton Water to Hythe, where she is now alongside at Hythe Marine Park.

My special thanks to both John, skipper, and Duncan, first mate, who made it all look easy.

We were going to move Lady Jane on Friday, but the weather forecast was for much friskier winds than seemed sensible, so we jumped on Thursday instead.

The plan is to lift her out the water on the slip they have here later on this week, weather depending of course.

Hythe Marine Park is vast, and Lady Jane is completely dwarfed by her new surroundings.

I'm loving the new spot we are in.

The future

2011-07-05T13:15:00.002+01:00

I've seen the future, and it's an Arklow Future.

Looks quite green as well!

More primer

2011-07-04T15:46:00.002+01:00

It looks the same as the last picture, I know, but this is the deck after another coat of red primer.

The first coat was just single pack primer, painted simply to prevent the rust busting effort from going to waste with the rain looming.

This red is the proper Hempel two pack epoxy primer I usually use.

The eagle eyed webcam watchers amongst you have already noticed that this blog post is a little behind, and I've also now got a coat of grey down on the deck as well.

Mast off

2011-07-01T10:24:00.003+01:00

I saw these guys going past the other weekend.

I can't help but wonder what happened there.

Whatever it was, it looks expensive!

Deck paint

2011-06-28T14:25:00.001+01:00

I know I've done a lot of waffling on this blog recently, but work on the old girl has been plodding on.

Here you see the recently completed rust busting on the last bit of deck left exposed after the wood had been hacked off last year.

Just as the painting was finished, it started to rain. Good timing!

I've more paint on order, so can finish off this section properly sometime soon.

I'm thinking next I may break out the concrete on the edges by the scuppers, and then cut a notch lower in the scuppers, so I don't get those annoying puddles you see there.

Fish out of water

2011-06-27T16:07:00.003+01:00

I'm starting work on the 'fishing Lady Jane out of the water' project.

This is her last time she was properly taken out, by her previous owners.

First things first, I need to get my hands on some docking plans, as the yard need that for a safe haul out.

I've emailed the few people I've had contact with in Belgium, but no replies so far...

Any help I can get with this will be gratefully appreciated.

Crane off - again

2011-06-24T16:34:00.001+01:00

So here is the crane that had been loaded onto that truck a few hours previously.

They had made it round a left hand bend then a right hander at the lights, where it fell off. Right by the bus stop and not far from where it had previously been moored all those years..

Thankfully nobody was hurt.

Oddly enough I had mentioned to a bystander earlier that they would have to be careful going round corners with that load on. It turns out it was the guy who had just sold the crane. He said it would be fine - Ha.

By the time I got there to take a picture, no less than three large lifting trucks, like you can see in the picture had descended on the scene, along with the police and a few council workers to assist.

I'm guessing that once all the bills from that lot are paid, what was a tidy earner for someone turned into an expensive nightmare.

As you can imagine, traffic in Southampton over the Northam bridge was a nightmare while they got the crane back on the bed of the truck again.

Crane off

2011-06-23T16:10:00.001+01:00

The other weekend, on the Friday, I watched this crane being removed from it's barge.

It had been moored upriver from the Northam bridge for quite some time.

The crane, asides for it's tracks, is remarkably similar to the crane on the barge next to me. The barge by me is much smaller though.

It all looked like some operation, with the bulk of the work being performed with oxy-acetylene cutters and that big digger you see there.

The next morning, I watched it being loaded onto a big truck - using the big digger to nudge it up the ramp.

Apparently the crane is sold to someone in India, who will refurbish it and presumably use for the next fifty or so years.

The barge is destined for London, presumably pressed into service for some scheme relating to the Olympics there.

7 Years

2011-06-22T16:31:00.002+01:00

This weekend marks the seventh year I've now had Lady Jane.

Obviously there have trials and tribulations along the way.

Overall though, it's been a lot of learning and a lot of fun.

More travel

2011-06-21T17:29:00.000+01:00

I've been away travelling again.

Just back today.

Updates soon..

Strenuous

2011-05-31T16:35:00.001+01:00

Here is the Strenuous.

She came by on Saturday, on her way to the public slip just opposite me.

I must say, although she looks somewhat of a project, her engine sounded fine. More than I can say for poor Lilagina next to me, who's engine no longer runs due to the ravages of time and the odd flooding down below.

The skipper of Strenuous, by himself, with some dextrous manoeuvring put her onto the public slip with no fuss.

As soon as the tide started going out, he was over the side giving her bottom a scrub down.

By Sunday she was back on her way up the river again.

Valiant

2011-05-27T16:32:00.001+01:00

Here is the Valiant.

She is just getting ready to go - now, live this Friday afternoon.

Not much else is happening on the river at the moment, though that will likely change as it's the start of a long weekend.

Hopefully the weather will improve somewhat.

Shuttle plume

2011-05-25T13:59:00.002+01:00

This is nothing to do with Lady Jane, or anything even remotely related, but looked so good I thought I'd have to post it.

It's the plume from the space shuttle Endeavour just after it's final mission launch.

The reverse of the above picture, from below, is here:

How good is that?

In the river...

2011-05-24T13:19:00.001+01:00

I don't know what it was about that weekend, but a few boat crews ended up in the drink.

A little earlier Andy, Lee and myself fished a couple of blokes out of the river, and towed their boat back to their clubhouse. They had had enough for the day.

Unlike these ladies, who promptly got back into their rowing boat and carried on going as if nothing had happened.

RIB

2011-05-23T13:04:00.000+01:00

It's not all work all the time on Lady Jane - especially at the moment when I'm so busy at work & just don't feel like doing much on the weekend when I'm on board.

This picture, taken the other weekend, shows Andy And Steve returning from a trip to get essential supplies for the BBQ that evening.

It's seems odd to me to see my RIB being driven by someone else.

Back

2011-05-17T13:53:00.002+01:00

I'm back from my travels, but busy with the inevitable catch-up.

Normal blogging will resume shortly....

Travelling

2011-05-11T14:01:00.001+01:00

I'm away travelling for my proper job, and very busy, at the moment, hence the silence.

Back soon...

Royal wedding

2011-04-29T11:16:00.000+01:00

Just watching THE wedding...

Painted

2011-04-28T18:52:00.001+01:00

So here it is.

The next section of deck rust busted, and a first coat of primer on.

A long day for all, but well worth it.

Production

2011-04-27T16:47:00.000+01:00

It was a busy boat this last weekend.

We had a four day weekend last weekend, coupled with glorious sunshine.

With friends down to help, this was the perfect setup for loads to be achieved.

Here you see Steve, in the foreground, and Lee rust busting the port side of the deck.

I had gone over this section last year, but rust never takes time off.

Now it all has to be done properly again.

Webcam

2011-04-21T11:05:00.003+01:00

The eagle eyed amongst you would most likely have spotted the webcam image to the right of my blog page is now updating.

Yup, I've finally got my webcam up and running, and just today upgraded the camera to a slightly better model.

To see it in all it's glory, go to my webcam page here. It should now stay up more or less permanently, unless there is some kind of communication problem of course.

What I've done, is implemented the webcam on a Phidgets SBC (Mine is a slightly older model), the same SBC I use for reporting voltages, temperatures and pressures.

The reason for using an SBC is it hardly draws any power at all, yet does a respectable job as a Linux computer in it's own right.

It's all still a bit of a work in progress, of course. The story of my life I guess.

Regatta

2011-04-19T15:57:00.001+01:00

What with one thing and another, it was a busy weekend on the River Itchen this last weekend.

Sunday they had a rowing regatta on, so the river was littered with all kinds of crews battling it out between them.

I could not really tell who was winning or not, but there was plenty of grunting and shouting going on.

Finally, LED practically dead

2011-04-18T19:07:00.003+01:00

This is, most likely, the last post I'll make on the LED's progress.

The LED has been reduced to a tiny pinprick of light, even after bypassing the resistor.

So that's the end of that particular experiment.

Who would have thought that that light would have shone continuously for nearly nine months?

Some proper posts on their way shortly, promise.

Gulls

2011-04-06T14:30:00.001+01:00

Coming back down the River Itchen the other evening, suddenly there were gulls everywhere.

There was nobody else around, and no reason that I could see that brought the gulls down.

Could be there was a school of fish, or something else interesting in the water I could not see.

Makes for a pretty good picture though:)

Fire

2011-04-04T15:53:00.000+01:00

There is always something interesting going on around me.

Here you see a huge fire in the yard near me.

As best as I can tell, without going there for a visit, I believe the yard is some kind of topsoil recycling place.

They seem to feed soil through a large drum shaped sieve, separating the rubbish from the soil.

I suppose they had not disposed of their rubbish in a while..

It took the fire brigade about three hours, or so, to finally put it out.

Surfing

2011-03-11T11:12:00.000Z

I've seen this guy 'surfing' down the River Itchen a couple of times now.

I'll bet it's not as easy to do as he makes it look.

I suspect I'd end up in the drink the first boat that goes past me.

This does look fun though.

LED

2011-03-09T14:14:00.001Z

Still going....

Spitfire

2011-03-08T09:54:00.000Z

Saturday brought more aircraft related diversions, in the form of a Spitfire this time.

This flight was in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first Spitfire flight. Southampton was where it all originally started.

There were a good crown of people braving the cold up on the Itchen bridge, and probably far more at Mayflower park in Southampton itself, for what was a very quick fly-by.

Not much of a picture, but the plane was over me and gone so very fast. I had spent some time fiddling with the camera settings for that perfect shot, but inadvertently used the wrong metering mode so only ended up with a silhouette.

Ah well, next time.....

Coastguard helicopter

2011-03-07T11:08:00.002Z

Friday night's peace and quiet was somewhat disrupted with this Coastguard helicopter overhead, up and down the river, while it was searching.

From time to time people end up in the river at night, for whatever reason, and search and rescue, including the Coastguard helicopter, get called out to search the Itchen.

Where it's obvious they are searching my stretch of the river I feel an obligation to keep a lookout myself, thinking that if I had fallen in and got swept away I'd like to believe that others were keeping an eye out for me.

Fortunately, for all concerned, this occurrence is relatively rare. It also serves as a reminder to me that extra care must be taken at night, especially when the water is so cold.

In the event, it turns out that this call was a hoax and to add insult to injury someone also saw fit to point a laser at the helicopter cockpit.

Shame on them.

Barge

2011-03-04T11:21:00.001Z

Here's a picture of the barge which is moored just in front of me.

You can see the wood cut from my deck neatly stacked down below there, serving as ballast for the thing.

If you look at the end furthest away, you can see a notch cut into the deck. This is to accommodate the yacht the owner is planning on balancing on the barge.

The plan is the barge acts as a floating workshop.

It will be interesting to see what progress is made there as time marches relentlessly on.

Christoph M again

2011-03-02T09:30:00.001Z

A little bit more on the Christoph M.

Often when these boats tie up and the tide goes out, they end up listing somewhat as they come to rest on the bottom.

This is certainly the case with the Christoph M, but she also appears to have slid out sideways to deeper water on the muddy bottom.

If you look closely at the gangplank, you will see it's somewhat shorter than the gap there.

This used to happen to my platform in Fareham. The tension on my ropes worried me in the beginning, so the crew had to have been somewhat concerned for their mooring lines, and the possible consequences of them parting.

Ribs

2011-02-23T16:22:00.001Z

Now we are coming up to warmer weather, thoughts are turning to exploring more in the rib.

Obviously mine is not as posh as these.

Whizzing around the Solent in the wet and freezing cold can hardly be described as fun.

A little sunshine appears however.....

Christoph M

2011-02-22T13:17:00.000Z

On Sunday the Christoph M arrived, performing what must be the most unusual manoeuvre I think I've ever seen.

About 100 yards from her destination, with a huge clattering she let go her anchor, and continued to drag it all the way to her berth.

Needless to say, coming alongside took far longer than is usual for these big vessels.

The only reason I can think they would dump their anchor like that is if the vessel had no reverse gear.

No sign of her using a bow thruster either.

Calm

2011-02-21T11:55:00.001Z

A cold, damp, misty but very calm day on the river.

It's very rare for the Itchen to be so completely calm.

Not even any birds fishing to disturb the river's mirror smooth surface.

24V Lighting

2011-02-18T10:07:00.002Z

I was going to post something different, but have already had a few questions and emails on lights.

Anyway, you can see the first pair of bunk lights there at the top left of the image. The wood coving also neatly covers the metal gussets (Rob). Oh, and these are only initial templates, not the finished article.

The lights I opted for were Dioder lights from Ikea, really only because they caught my eye when I was last there. The lights are a group of LED's arranged in a very neat, thin, housing.

To give you an idea of how thin the housing is, if you look at the far end of the bunk you will see the next strip ready to be mounted at the head of the bunk. The shiny silver bits are the lights.

The Ikea Dioder lights come with a 12V transformer, so connecting a pair of these lights, in series, into an array very neatly gives me 24V lights in the bunk with no need for the transformer.

What I've done is setup two 24V arrays, independently switched, one at the head of the bunk for reading in bed and one at the side of the bunk for lounging about against the hull reading during the day.

Overall, I'd say that the lights are fine for the bunk area, and for reading, but I had hoped that they would be bright enough to also use as the main lights in the accommodation space.

Testing, with a second pair of arrays in the deckhead, has shown the lights are just not quite bright enough. No matter, I saw some bigger LED lights at Ikea, so will look more closely at those (voltages for a start).

If that fails, I will go to Portsmouth, to Furneaux Riddall, to see what their 24V lights look like in the flesh.

Wires everywhere

2011-02-17T14:11:00.001Z

Andy has been down for another visit.

An inevitable consequence of Andy's presence is wires hanging out all over the place. At least while he is there that is.

The plan I have is to use 24V lighting everywhere I possibly can on board, and low energy lighting at that.

The thinking being there is no point transforming the voltage from 24 to 240 for lights that are likely to be on for some time when I can use 24V for little or no extra effort.

Things look somewhat dire in this picture, but all the wiring was back together by the end of the weekend.

Things finished a little late, so I have loads of tidying up to do when I'm next on board.

LED update

2011-02-16T16:58:00.000Z

It's still going, but a distinctly fainter glow now.

Destination

2011-02-15T14:57:00.001Z

I thought it would be an idea to get a glimpse of the final product I'm working towards.

Here you see how the bunk can look with a mattress and quilt all in place.

You can also see I've been experimenting with lighting, though that's not by any means a final decision.

I can report that it's extremely comfortable to lie across the bunk, up against the curve of the hull, reading.

Further testing reveals the need for bedside shelving, to store essentials such as cups of tea and phones/music players.

Oh yes, and some kind of storage close to hand, for current clothes and suchlike, would also make life so much easier.

Bunks painted

2011-02-14T16:17:00.000Z

The inevitable coat of white paint.

It already looks so much better after a first coat of paint.

Not much more to say about this, other than "watch this space".

NASA Green Building

2011-02-09T10:14:00.004Z

I see this: NASA Green Building and think this is kind of like having a solar powered oil rig!

I'm thinking just lighting the fuse on one of the rockets they refuel must pretty well cancel out all of their green effort entirely.

For the purists out there, I mean with the amount of energy it takes to make the fuel they ultimately use.

Battery state

2011-02-08T13:42:00.000Z

Strong winds = free power for me.

We have been somewhat battered by winds these past few days, though it's all died down again now.

Plenty of wind translates into plenty of power for me.

I've not had to run a generator at all this last weekend, and for most of the time the battery voltage stayed above the magical 25.8V figure I need for the battery refreshers to work.

It's been years that I've had the battery refreshers, but even now the charge the battery holds seems to be ever so slowly improving.

Bunk primed

2011-02-07T10:31:00.000Z

I'm back!

This winter has been longer and colder than I'd like. In turn this, along with being desperately busy at work, has impacted how much I've wanted to do when down on the boat on the weekends.

It's easy to find reasons to stay snuggled up in the wheelhouse bunk reading when the temperature outside is below zero and the heating system on the boat has to run virtually full time in a vain attempt to keep the cold out.

Anyway, work on board has not halted completely. Here you see evidence of the bunks being primed, in preparation for painting.

The idea here is the bunks are painted and sealed, helping prevent any spills, or whatever, from getting to anything which may be stored below the bunks.

Kindle

2011-01-04T15:22:00.001Z

Father Christmas was good to me this year - Here you see my new Kindle.

After my recent travels, and lots of questions, it seemed obvious I should get a Kindle (Thanks Dick). So far I've not been disappointed.

Amazon say of the Kindle that they want the technology to disappear, and the reading experience to remain. Recently, while reading a book on my Kindle I found myself trying to turn the page like I would on a book, so I can say that they have probably achieved that with me.

I like the fact that it just works, including downloading books wherever I am.

I don't like what seems to be extraordinary high prices for the e-books you do buy.

What is interesting to me is the range of free books available. The section you see in the picture is from Einstein's theory of relativity.

I see that, asides for when I'm travelling, the Kindle will be great for reading all the books in a series. This is something that has long been an issue for me with library books.

Happy new year

2010-12-31T12:26:00.001Z

All that's now left is for me to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

LED glow

2010-12-30T09:36:00.000Z

An update on my LED 'project' is well overdue.

As you can see from the picture taken yesterday, the LED is still going strong. Though it's not as bright as it was initially.

It's now over five month's solid that light has been on, using the same set of batteries.

I'd never have believed it would last as long as it has, and with more to go...

Gooducken

2010-12-29T10:12:00.002Z

Here's the main component of our Christmas lunch.

Gooducken - Goose, duck and chicken. This was to feed six.

Along with roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, roast parsnips, brussel sprouts, peas, carrots, bread sauce and, of course, gravy, this made for a fine Christmas meal.

Did I mention copious amounts of champagne and other sundry liquid pleasures?

All very much appreciated by everyone.

Not much of the gooducken left, though there is still some of the Christmas eve ham still kicking about... Not for long I suspect.

Happy Christmas

2010-12-24T09:17:00.002Z

Here's wishing one and all a very happy Christmas, wherever you are and whatever your situation.

May all your wishes come true.

Here we have the food and booze in, and are getting geared up for what looks set for a brilliant Christmas.

Wikileaks - what's the point?

2010-12-23T12:21:00.001Z

Are we supposed to applaud the recent wikileaks 'cablegate'?

I, for one, do not, and feel this will have long reaching, and unintended, consequences. None of them positive.

It seems to me that the thinking behind releasing hundreds of thousands of supposedly secure US Embassy diplomatic cables by wikileaks is fundamentally flawed.

To release them and not hide sensitive names and information is plainly ludicrous for all kinds of obvious reasons, not least of which is humanitarian.

To release them, but subjectively redact information renders the cables and the wikileaks people pretty much superfluous.

We are now left to read cables and cable contents that the wikileaks people think we should be allowed to read - so far as I can see that's not much different to leaving the US government to decide what should be public or not, though the US government is likely to be better informed on the sensitivity of these diverse issues.

Besides, who's to say that the cables have not been doctored in some other way as part of the release process?

Solstice

2010-12-22T13:11:00.002Z

Last night, at 23:38, was the exact time of the winter solstice for us folks in the northern hemisphere. Summer solstice for you lucky people down there in the southern part.

It says so in the Astronomy picture of the day website, so it must be true.

It never really occurred to me that the solstice would occur at an exact time, but I suppose it makes sense if you think about it.

Actually if you look in Wikipedia, they have more information on it that you would ever actually want to read, unless you are either really keen or bored.

Winter

2010-12-21T09:47:00.001Z

Still no boat news.

The cold and unpredictability of the weather more or less dictated I should not go down to Lady Jane during the weekend.

That inevitably means a few more non boat posts here.

So simple

2010-12-17T12:43:00.000Z

It often seems it's the simple things that make the most difference.

Ever since I've owned a digital camera, I've struggled somewhat with copying pictures from the camera or it's card.

The issue has been one of sheer tediousness, and the potential for missing pictures.

I have to go to the directory where the pictures are stored, then find the highest number image I've saved.

I then have to go to the camera or camera card directory, find the number after the highest copied.

I then have to highlight the un-copied pictures and drag/drop them into their final destination directory.

It's not difficult, I know, but tedious. I also suspect that I'm not the only one struggling with this.

While doing something else earlier, it suddenly occurred to me that I could knock up a program to do this job for me.

In fact, the program lists all the files in a destination directory, defined just once on the camera/card, and copies all the files that are on the camera/card that have not already copied.

Suddenly, this task is quick and easy - I should have done this years ago.

Robin

2010-12-16T09:46:00.003Z

There is not much happening on Lady Jane at the moment, mostly because of the weather.

It's that time of the year when things seem so damp and miserable.

No boat action gives me the opportunity to blog about other stuff for a while.

Here is our 'tame' robin, dropping in for an early morning snack of meal worms.

This robin is often seen close-by when we are in the garden. I think it likes the company.

In the mornings he will often stand there, with me sitting close by, chirping merrily away.

Split 3

2010-12-14T11:23:00.003Z

Here Split 3 makes her way up the River Itchen, past Lady Jane, on a Friday evening.

Split 3 is a regular visitor to these parts.

This emphasises a big difference I've learned between coastal shipping in the US and shipping here - known as short sea I believe.

In the US, because of the way the rules and regulations work, Split 3 would probably be a barge, with a separate tug to push it.

Here, in the UK, it's more normal to see small coasters or vessels like this, with no tug in attendance.

Skip boat

2010-12-10T12:41:00.000Z

Some time ago, when I was planning on getting rid of the wood from my deck, Rob suggested I float a skip across the river, fill it, then float it back again.

I think you guys in the US call skips dumpsters? I'm not sure.

At the time, I was taken with the concept. Not that I intended to do it though, on account of the dire risk of the thing tipping over and sinking.

The consequences and subsequent clean-up effort would have been unthinkable.

Today though, when I arrived on board Lady Jane, I saw this skip in the water just down the river from me (right there in the middle of the picture).

I thought that was just too priceless a photo opportunity to miss!

Cistern

2010-12-02T14:39:00.002Z

I swear, in total I've spent more time on this toilet than almost any other single thing on the boat.

It's forever giving problems, and usually at the worst possible times.

Captain Bob, who travelled with us a while on the Wanderbird, says he is going to write a book about marine toilets and the problems he's had. At least I'm not the only person suffering.

The setup I have is, I think, very simple. I pump seawater up to a header tank above the toilet. This water can then flow into the cistern in a similar fashion to a normal household toilet.

What could possibly go wrong?

The disconnected white pipe you can see is the freshwater feed, for when I'm alongside and water is in plentiful supply. The wooden block is to hold the broken flusher mechanism in place.

Anyway, I quickly learned that if I let the header tank run dry, I'd get fine silt into the cistern as soon as the header started to fill and the silt got stirred up.

I know a simple filter would most likely fix this, but I've never got around to doing it.

The silt either blocked the filler mechanism, meaning there was no water for the next flush, or prevented a seal being made after someone flushed, meaning all the water from the header would then leak out.

The toilet inlet mechanism had eventually got so full of silt that it took ages to fill the cistern between flushes, then causing blushes.

The silt situation got slowly worse until the inevitable running dry of the header and subsequent complete blockage of the filler mechanism, despite 'gentle persuasion' with the handy piece of wood.

After a spell of bucket flushing, I finally managed to put in a brand new filler mechanism. A better one which should not be as affected by silt. After that and because I'd bought the parts online, I keep getting ads for plumbing supplies and toilet flushers when I visit some of my regular sites. Like I really need reminding of this!

A few weeks after fixing the filler, the pump I use to fill the header tank went on the blink. Standing in the freezing cold cussing some, although satisfying, did not help the situation one bit.

Now, with it being at or below freezing on board, the water in the filler pipes will have frozen - thus forcing me back to using a bucket to flush when I'm next down there.

Ahh, this glamorous millionaires boating lifestyle....

Weather

2010-11-30T16:25:00.000Z

Now all the travel is over, and I've had a chance to recover from the jet lag, you would expect things to be getting back to normal here.

Not.

It seems the weather has other ideas.

Suddenly, over the weekend, it's got really cold here - just on or below freezing during the day.

With icy patches on deck, and the prospect of snow on the horizon, it's hard to muster the enthusiasm to get back to the rust busting the deck project.

Or any projects on board for that matter, with it being so cold.

Here you see Fred posing, just before he starts his journey home. Potentially through ice and snow, which we are not good at handling here in the UK

Home at last

2010-11-23T10:28:00.002Z

For those of you who don't know, I'm home again, at last.

As a matter of interest, the LED I've been blogging about is still shining brightly!

It's been a very slow weekend for me, as I've always found travelling back from the US hard jet-lag wise. Consequently I spent most of the weekend recovering from my adventure (read sleeping) & managed no work on board.

For now, I'm still playing catchup at work, so am somewhat busy right now.

Normal posting will resume shortly, as things get back to normal.

Tugster

2010-11-20T20:03:00.003Z

Life is so strange, you could not make some of this stuff up!

Here you see Will, aka Tugster, at work in one of his New York 'offices'. This one has a canteen just a few doors away which served us a fine lunch.

I've been following Tugster's blog off and on for the last three or four years now and, likewise, Tugster has been following mine, with occasional comments.

It seemed rude to go to New York, and not to let Tugster know I'd be arriving on Wanderbird.

With emails back and forth, and phone calls the day before arriving, Tugster was at Hell Gate to welcome us into New York with a big cheery wave as we steamed past.

The next day, Tugster took me to a few of his favourite ship/tug spotting locations, where we hung out watching the shipping world go by. Great fun - thanks for the hospitality Will.

Tugster has produced some fine posts on Wanderbird, here and here.

If you follow boats, and tugs in particular, his blog is worth checking into, as he posts regularly.

Queen Mary 2 in New York

2010-11-18T17:25:00.001Z

The Wanderbird was tied up at a place called Atlantic Basin, in New York.

During the early morning on the day following our arrival, the Queen Mary 2 arrived just over the way from us.

A few minutes walk provided the perfect photo opportunity, with the Statue of Liberty framed under the bow of the Queen Mary 2.

It shouldn't do, but it was a bit weird for me to see the Queen Mary 2 there. Just like being in Southampton docks again.

Like so much I've experienced with boats - I again had that feeling of things being the same, but different.

New York

2010-11-16T18:51:00.003Z

Here we are on the Wanderbird, cruising down New York's East River towards Atlantic Basin, where we will tie up alongside Cape Race.

For those regular readers, I know this post is a little late. I can only blame Barry, the barman at a most unusual pub, The Bait & Tackle, here in Red Hook, New York.

As we were travelling through New York, right by Manhatten, all the passengers and crew had big grins on their faces.

That last streach of our journey easily surpassed all expectations I had of arriving in New York by boat like that.

Next stop - New York

2010-11-14T22:51:00.004Z

Here's the Wanderbird, neatly tucked in alongside a fishing wharf in Newport, Rhode Island.

We got in fairly late last night, but not so late as to miss last orders at the Black Pearl, just a few hundred yards from where we were tied up.

This mornings departure was somewhat tinged with sadness as we said goodbye to new friends Steve and Dianna and the larger than life couple that are Bruce and Sheila from 7-C's Charters.

Such is the nature of boating it seems, always saying farewell to friends new and old.

Right now, as I post this, we are just entering Long Island Sound.

If all goes according to plan, we should be hitting the approach to New York sometime around dawn.

Through the Cape Cod Canal

2010-11-13T20:10:00.003Z

Live, right now, we have just called up on the radio and cleared ourselves out of the west side of the Cape Cod Canal, now in buzzards bay.

The whole day has been sunshine, no wind and pleasantly warm - especially when sat out on deck in the afternoon sun.

The wonderful weather and pleasant companionship on board the Wanderbird completely cancels out the miserable cold and the lumpy seas of the last few days.

We steamed down from Gloucester yesterday afternoon and evening, after a few hours wait for the seas to settle down somewhat.

It looks like it's going to be good weather and calm seas all the way through to New York Now. Tugster, we are on our way!

Another day in Gloucester

2010-11-11T16:56:00.004Z

We are still here in Gloucester.

The picture you see is as of right now, while writing this blog entry.

While it looks sunny and warm, it's actually very windy and cold out.

Gloucester is very much the centre of a lot of US maritime history, including the perfect storm.

In fact we drank at the very bar that was part of the whole story. This gives you all somewhat of a clue as to why I did not post yesterday!

If the forecast stays accurate, we will most likely be leaving here tomorrow.

Gloucester - twin lighthouses

2010-11-09T18:41:00.006Z

This was a welcome sight for many of us on the Wanderbird this morning.

We sailed all night through some pretty rough seas, which persisted for the entire twenty or so hours of steaming all the way down from Rockland, where we had taken on some diesel yesterday afternoon.

After an initial delay due to cooling problems, the engine did not miss a beat the entire way.

As before, when travelling on the Wanderbird I find myself thinking there is no reason Lady Jane can't be doing the same thing.

We are now snug inside Gloucester harbour, and are likely to be holed up here for the next few days on account of the weather.

By all accounts, this is not a bad place to be stuck, as there is plenty to see and do hereabouts.

The start of an adventure

2010-11-08T14:01:00.003Z

Here you see the Wanderbird, nestled in her home port of Belfast, Maine, USA.

Right now, I'm sitting high up in the wheelhouse - dashing out this blog entry!

The sense of excitement is slowly building here on board.

In a few hours, we set off for Rockport, for fuel, then onwards in easy stages down to New York.

Our actual destination today really depends on the weather, and the sea state, as it was pretty windy last night.

As captain Rick says, safety is everything.

It is such fun to be back on board the Wanderbird, with friends both new and old.

More on this great adventure as it unfolds..

Busy..

2010-11-03T16:07:00.001Z

Work has been a bit mad, so no time for me to post.

I can tell you that the LED is still going strong. That's more than three months solid it's been lit now.

Central heating upgrade

2010-10-28T14:06:00.001+01:00

It's time for an upgrade to the central heating system.

The wheelhouse does not stay as warm as the rest of the heated areas of the boat, mostly because the radiator in there is comparatively small.

What I'm doing in the picture is installing pipes underneath the wheelhouse deck, so making underfloor heating.

The new system definitely works, though I'll need to spend some time balancing up the rest of the system, as now the galley is not as toasty warm as it used to be..

Rusty deck

2010-10-26T14:18:00.001+01:00

Here's a view of the deck before rust busting started.

So far, I've got the whole of the port side chipped, all the way round to the back door, and the main part of the deck on the starboard side chipped (thanks to Steve and Lee of course).

Work on this project has been a bit slow of late, on account of other jobs taking priority.

If the weather holds this weekend, I'm hopeful of getting the next section wire brushed and primed.

Peak Bergen

2010-10-25T12:50:00.001+01:00

Here the Peak Bergen executes a rather neat pirouette right by Lady Jane.

That's some impressive piloting, turning such a long vessel in such a small space.

I think the Peak Bergen is probably carrying grain.

A rant

2010-10-18T13:34:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago I had to buy razor blades for the razor on the boat. Easy you might think....

First of all, the supermarkets would have you believe there are two brands, Gillette and Wilkinson, but their blades all look the same to me.

So far as I'm concerned, a razor comprises two parts, the handle, which is basically only a small stick, and the blades, which just have to cut my facial hair and not me. Beyond that I don't really care.

If the blades are coated in lark's vomit, or whatever it is the manufacturers claim, I just don't care, I consider Mine is an average face which merits no special attention, other than cutting that stubble.

Anyway, I bought Gillette blades (£ 10.00 for eight I think) . When I got on the boat I discovered I had a Wilkinson razor and the Gillette blades, of course, would not fit (packaging opened - so no return possible).

This was not the end of my world, as I've been through this cycle before, and I've the other brand at home - Even though I don't need blades for it for the foreseeable future.

The next week I bought some Wilkinson blades, another £ 10.00 or so for eight of the things. Of course, when I went back to the boat the next week I discovered the blades did not fit the handle. It seems that every few years the design changes so now, like it or not, I more or less had to go and buy a new Wilkinson razor.

Back to the shops for a new handle the next week - £ 11.00 or so for a handle and a few more blades.

Now I'm over £ 30.00 quid down and awash with spare razor blades and I just know I'm likely to repeat the cycle in a few years time, when I finally run out of blades again.

To add a final insult to this whole sorry affair, I slashed my hand when I was opening the new razor packaging.

On reflection, it seems far more sensible to consider going electric in future.

Second coat

2010-10-15T12:07:00.001+01:00

Here's the next coat going on.

The creamy look I'm seeing heralds a good paint job on the deck.

Experience has shown that it's vital to get that second coat on as soon as possible after the first, while allowing 24hrs for the first coat to cure.

What seems to happen if the second coat is left too long, is that the rust manages to bleed through the first coat fairly quickly.

I suspect there are micropores left in a first coat that are only closed with a second coat.

A third coat will go on soon, though this third coat is just by way of making sure the steel is well sealed.

Paint on

2010-10-14T11:50:00.002+01:00

So this post should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has been following along.

As things have worked out, the weather has so far been really kind to me with this phase of the deck project.

It looks like I'll get by this next weekend with no rain, and therefore no pools of water on the deck.

The significance of this is I should be able to finish rust busting and initial priming of all of the port side of the deck, so I don't have a pool of water, and the subsequent mess, half on and half off my newly primed section of deck.

Once I have the deck completely sealed with primer, I'll start work on getting rid of the surrounding concrete, and so get rid of the cause of the pools completely.

Clean

2010-10-12T14:21:00.002+01:00

So here's a view of the section of deck I've just finished wire brushing and cleaning up.

Pete in answer to your comment, I've learned that exposed steel starts to rust almost immediately, unless the atmosphere is completely dry. So the trick is to get a coat of primer onto the bare steel as soon as is practical.

Needless to say, the very next thing I did, after a cup of tea, was to get going painting with the primer.

All this work makes for filthy dirty bath water once back at home!

Difference

2010-10-11T14:14:00.000+01:00

What a difference a few days hard graft makes.

Here, the picture shows the two phases of my rust busting process.

The first layer (top) is the original rusty surface.

The second layer shows the steel after chipping with the Hilti TE104

The last layers shows the steel after attention with a wire brush.

After a really good clean, with brushes, vacuum and rags, the steel is then good to paint with the Hemple primer.

Switches and sockets

2010-10-07T16:46:00.001+01:00

More sockets are a sure sign that Andy has been.

Here you see the improvements to one of the two bunk spaces in the form of a mains socket and a switch for the main light for the occupant(s). Thanks Andy.

The fortuitous purchase of an additional light switch means the crew space down below now has three light switches - one by each of the bunks and one up above.

Trying to think through, without looking at a diagram, how two switches work together so either switch turns the light on or off is hard enough, but how three work together is really tough.

Fortunately we have the internets to help us figure out how stuff works.

Like so many puzzles, the answer is easy when you can see it before you.

LED still going

2010-10-06T15:23:00.003+01:00

Somewhat predictable I suppose.

In other news, I've updated the temperature and voltage trackers so it's possible to scroll back through time.

I've sill got to fix the internet access reliability issue I'm having, when I get the time.

Wellies

2010-10-05T10:11:00.002+01:00

There is nothing like good customer service.

Some time ago I bought some, very expensive, waterproof boots for the boat.

My original plan was to get a pair of cheap wellies. In the event I was persuaded to buy a pair of Sebago boots.

Now I really don't mind spending good money on quality stuff, especially when my own comfort is involved.

Anyway, the supposed waterproof boots leaked, so I took them back. The people at the shop were very good about it, but made me feel it must have been me that was wrong, or that I had done something to them.

The shop replaced the boots with another pair of the same type etc.

Some time later, when the new boots were needed, I discovered that they also leaked. Because of the journey involved, and the fact that it seemed to be my fault, I did not take them back.

Recently, at the boatshow, I spied the Sebago stand and went and asked one of the guys there if their boots were really supposed to be waterproof. He seemed a bit surprised at the question and replied, yes - absolutely.

After I explained my issue, he gave me a name and number to call at Sebago to arrange a replacement.

Because of my holiday, it was only after I got back that I called the Sebago folks.

With absolutely no argument, and an apology, they arranged for new boots to be despatched to me. Apparently there had been a faulty batch and I was just unlucky.

After initial testing in the bath last night, my replacement Sebago boots seem just fine.

Ahh - comfy waterproof boots at last!

Help rust busting

2010-10-04T15:22:00.001+01:00

Here you see Steve taking a turn on the Hilti, while Lee manages the broom.

Taking turns on the Hilti really helps get the job done.

Between Lee and Steve, a good portion of the main part of the deck has now had the first stage of rust busting completed.

The difference between the cleaned up steel and the rusty steel is very obvious in the picture.

The next stage will be to cleanup the rest of the surface rust with a wire brush, then get some paint on as quickly as possible after that.

The work continues....

Back

2010-09-29T10:17:00.002+01:00

Apologies to one and all for my recent silence.

It's just that I've been away on holiday in Greece with Patch this last week.

Pictures are on their way soonest.

We arrived home yesterday to find the LED still lowing brightly - That's more than two months solid it's been on now.

Rust busting

2010-09-24T11:15:00.000+01:00

With the wood gone, attention now turns to the real job - rust busting the deck.

Here you see the first section cleared back using my trusty Hilti TE104.

This needs cleaning off with a wire brush and then priming so the rust cant get back on.

So far, the rust has come off relatively easily and the underlying steel seems in surprisingly good shape.

A long way to go though...

Wood off

2010-09-23T10:23:00.000+01:00

Things have turned out pretty well in terms of getting rid of the wood that was on my deck.

As it turns out, Graham, the owner of the barge, said he would take the lot as he needs ballast.

Because the barge is right there, it did not take nearly as long to get rid of the wood as I had initially feared.

What I opted to do in the end was stack the wood into an upturned table, without the legs, so that if some numpty came speeding by, the wash would not cause me to lose a stack of wood into the water.

LED

2010-09-22T11:47:00.000+01:00

The LED is still going strong.

Maybe snowbiker will be right with his 5000 hours guess?

Barge

2010-09-21T11:16:00.000+01:00

I have a new neighbour.

Graham, the guy who owns Lilagina, also owns this and had it brought round last week.

The plan is this barge will hold his other boat, not Lilagina, so he can work on it.

It doesn't look much, but it has potential.

One big boat project is normally enough for most people!

Bits and bobs

2010-09-20T11:52:00.004+01:00

I'm still working away on the electronics front as well, I've just not blogged about it much.

The image shows a chart comparing the last 12 hours of temperatures in the wheelhouse with those 24 hours previously.

The chart you see is from a website I've created, which is sent data regularly directly from Lady Jane.

There is not much going on with the rest of the website, which was actually originally setup for something I'm looking at for work,

If you are curious, the temperatures as at 5.30 yesterday are here: www.itsbeenalongday.com/index.php/technotes/monitor and the voltages here: www.itsbeenalongday.com/index.php/technotes/volts (note that if you are reading this some time after the date of this post, things may well have moved on a bit).

This, in effect, opens up the way for any of Lady Jane's vital statistics to be made available real-time on the internet.

The possibilities here are endless.....

Work on this is on hold at the moment, hence the frozen time on the website, as I've been distracted with something else.

Hydrogen fuel cell

2010-09-17T09:21:00.002+01:00

So yesterday was my chance to visit the Southampton Boat Show.

My main interest was to start looking into the various options for Radar on board Lady Jane.

I know it's a while before I really need it, but I figure if I start research now, by the time I actually buy we will be in good shape to travel anyway.

The one thing that caught my attention was an operating display of a hydrogen fuel cell generator by Toomer and Hayter who, curiously, promote themselves as quality marine upholsterers.

I've seen and heard snippets of hydrogen fuel cells, but have never actually seen one in the flesh.

I must say, the idea of a generator which has water and heat as it's only emissions, coupled with the fact that it's virtually silent, is certainly very interesting to me.

Looking on the BOC website, they say that this technology is scalable, so presumably any amount of power can be produced with sufficient supplies of hydrogen.

So couple the concept of a hydrogen fuel cell generator with a hydrogen generator on board.

This idea sounds expensive, but an interesting and very eco friendly possibility - effectively free power from water!

Boatshow

2010-09-16T10:50:00.001+01:00

No time for a proper blog entry today.

I'm at the Southampton Boat Show.

A full update tomorrow.

LED is still on

2010-09-15T14:28:00.001+01:00

This is getting a little repetitive, I know.

Thing is if I don't mention it, people will think it's dead.

TLC for the rib

2010-09-14T17:09:00.003+01:00

It's time to give the RIB a little care and attention.

This time it's the electrics that need attention again.

Intermittent problems with both the pump and the nav lights have now been traced to the switches and connectors on the dashboard.

Handily, a visit to the Southampton Boat Show later this week should save me a trip to the chandlers for shiny new switches.

If I get the chance, I'll also see about getting a new waterproof junction box.

With new switches fitted, and good connections, this should mean the end of a long standing problem with the RIB lights, and me set for the darker months ahead.

Dawn on Lady Jane

2010-09-13T15:15:00.002+01:00

Another day breaks over the River Itchen.

There is nothing quite like the atmosphere of a still, calm, dawn. Especially while on board Lady Jane.