Weekly Newsletter 17th November

This week, for the first time, I'm making the weekly newsletter public for everyone. Partly it's because it is so short, partly to encourage more people to become Early Bird Supporters for only £2 a month or £20 per year.

The simple answer to the question "Where does the time go?" is that our boat is in one of the windiest places in the UK and this week we were hit by Storm Claudia. Many places have had significant problems due to the flooding, we didn't get that (although we needed wellies to get off the boat for a while). However, we did get around 60mph winds directly onto the back of the boat, and we have no protection from any sheds, other boats or anything from that direction.

It isn't just that we can't make much progress when the wind (and rain) are that strong, it is also that we end up needing to catch up on sleep we missed out on when the storm was raging.

With the wind coming from the North, we were concerned about our new solar panels on the rickety tower behind the boat. So Thursday was spent clearing up and fixing everything down. See Challenging Weather: More than we expected. On Friday we escaped for a while by going out to do our shopping at Llangefni and added in a coffee shop visit.

By the time Storm Claudia had passed (one of the worst storms we have experienced on the boat) we hadn't had any damage. Although the rain did force its way inside the main hatch, which did require some creative ways to keep it off our batteries.

Before Storm Claudia we managed progress on the electrical system: Big Electrical Milestones: Three big updates! That included the big update on our Electric Motor installation and the changes to our plans for this winter.

Since the storm we have been working on the central heating, given how little I know about plumbing and total lack of confidence it has taken a long time to get to the point where it still isn't working ;-) Everything is connected, we have now tested the pump (and it works), we have fixed all but one leak (and have parts to fix that). Hopefully the remaining issue was an airlock, and we have a cunning plan to tackle that. We have documented it in a couple of YouTube short videos:

Jane has continued to work on the wheelhouse cover, it is a huge job with 8 panels in total with complicated 3D shapes fitted with windows, zips, velcro attachments, eyelets for elastic, drip curtains, and lots of reinforcement.

Although building progress has been slow, we did add 7 YouTube subscribers (now 824) and several thousand more views.

We managed one walk at Menai Bridge, we have done it many times, but hadn't recorded it on Strava for our round Anglesey coastal path heatmap.

Socially, we are having great Saturday evening socials with friends working on their boats, we are also enjoying being part of the congregation at St John's Methodist Church, Bangor.

A short update this week. Hoping for better progress before the next newsletter.

Love
Dave and Jane