Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th March
We were just trying to decide what we were going to do on Saturday morning when we got a phone call from the boat yard saying the gas man would be there in 40 minutes and could we get there asap? So we dropped everything and set off for Hempsted.
We arrived quite some time before the gas man it has to be said but he eventually arrived and replaced the regulator and the ‘pig tail’ pipes. He tested the oven and it stayed on for 20 minutes so we said we were satisfied he had cured the problem as it had been going out after about 10 minutes and wouldn’t relight after that. The grill, which didn’t used to stay on at all, was vastly improved by the new regulator and the slight adjustment of the thermocouple and the rings were definitely more vigorous.
So the gas man went off and we had to wait for the chap from the boat yard to make up our bill so we could pay before we left. This took an age but as they close at 1pm on a Saturday we knew it would be before then! Finally we got the bill and I went in to pay. Unfortunately the credit card machine ran out of paper before my receipt was dispensed and this lead to yet another delay while two people tried to fit a new roll!
With the bill paid we decided to return to Gloucester because we had left in a hurry this morning and had not had a chance to do our shopping. We moored by the lightship again. By this time it was getting on a bit and we hoped the fish stall in the market still had something good left for our dinner. As it turned out we got a very good piece of haddock. To celebrate the cooker being fixed we got some chips to go with the fish. Unfortunately the cooker was not playing ball and kept going out! It did relight easily and stayed alight long enough to cook the chips but we were still pissed off!
Sunday I decided to do some cleaning while Ken made a start on the touch up jobs which need doing. This gave him a chance to play with his Dremmel! While I was doing the cleaning I noticed the water pump kept coming on every 30 seconds or so meaning there was a leak somewhere! Oh no, another problem!
As we hadn’t filled up with water since the previous Wednesday we thought we had better move up to the tap and fill up anyway, so we did that. We checked all the visible places we could have a leak but couldn’t find one so thoughts turned to the invisible leak behind the panelling, very difficult to find, aaargh!
Ken decided to look at the pump to see if there was anything wrong with that and quickly discovered that the seals on the connections between the pump and the pipes was where the leak was. Bingo! We have a new pump (just in case anything goes wrong with the old one) and this came supplied with new connectors so he fitted these and there was no more leak, hoorah!
So with another disaster averted we went off to Foster’s to have a beer in the sun. It was very Springlike on Sunday and there were lots of people about in the docks.
Later on, as were moored conveniently close and because we were still fed up with the oven, we went to Real China again.
