Drizzle

Wednesday 30-31 March 2011

A persistent drizzle set in on Wednesday, so the boatyard wasn't an option.  We were grateful, really, as there was so much to do to stash stuff away.  But the drizzle meant I was up at 5 am, shifting boxes of books into the shed, and then being unable to move around in the shed.  But we stuck at it - well, Dave got on with fixing the latest leaks in the plumbing (washing machine) while I built more shelves and put things away in the trailer. 

The trailer wobbled so much, and leant crazily to the right, so Dave took a break from the plumbing and chocked it up, so that I could pile things on shelves in there too.

With the plumbing surviving close scrutiny, Dave fired up the generator and I put the first wash in the machine.

The photo doesn’t show it well – but the drum is gyrating.  On the second wash (there was lots of laundry in our lives at this point) it stopped, and showed an error code.  The code wasn’t listed in the troubleshooting guide (typical!) so I cleaned out the filter.  The machine started again, then failed.  I tried a few more times, then emptied it out except for a few items.  It went quite well, but failed on the spin cycle.  At this point, Dave noticed my obsession with the washing machine, and pointed out that the problem would be not enough power from the generator.  We turned it up a notch, and the wash finished easily.

Lesson from that experience – don’t overload the machine: it takes a lot of power to spin a heavy load; and ensure the generator is set high enough.  New ideas about power management started to filter into my electricity-taken-for-granted brain.

Then it drizzled some more, and all the washing had to be crammed into the shed along with everything else.  The stove isn't on, of course.

Thursday we had the chance to move our all-but-derelict rib: Mad Robbie and Rob were willing to help, so here it is, parked at the turn in the lane, where it's more likely to be an eyesore for Michael and Alison than us.  Oops.