On completion of the polishing one more cup of coffee & skip decided to switch back to the fuel in my tank. With the unit still running he turns the thermostat down slightly & heads for home. He comes back in the evening & its still running the saloon is one point below 18°C.
Sunday & it's raining so skip did things in the north attic of the house, before returning mid-afternoon. It was still running, 7 litres of fuel burnt according to my gauge & still at 18°C in my saloon.
So is the C02 level close enough ?
Skips going to let it run burn some fuel down & then check inside my tank see if after 8 years there's any sludge build up & satisfy himself of how deep the pick up is. He's also going to shut it down & implement a cold start.
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Today, Monday, skip popped down briefly, think he has a cold, but I'm still 18oC in the saloon and my heater is still working away, it had burnt another 3 litres, down to 207l. It's been a miserable day, fine rain all the time, no let up.
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All change, the heater stopped working soon after and skip just can't get it to fire up again, barring using paraffin. He managed to almost severe the top of his left hand index finger, working on his house not me, something about a bench circular saw, bit of wood & fingers blah, blah, blah. So once he's capable the unit is coming out and he's taking it to the chap round the corner to inspect the burner and the glow plug, see if there's any trace of rusting which will indicate a high moisture content in the fuel.
He's also going to take the opportunity to inspect inside my fuel tank to see where exactly the fuel pick up point is for the unit and of course see if any debris in the form of diesel bug is present.
Weather down here has been long spells of freezing fog and the two electric heaters I have I think are not as efficient as they used to be, Whilst the I'm kept around 5C, I'm sure skip would like to see the return of 18C that the Webasto kept me at for 80hrs.
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It's the last day of January and skip turned up today, it's not been very nice with either fog, drizzle or just cold. He came wearing a cover over his finger, which may also explain the reason he's not been down too much recently. An accident with a circular saw & a piece of timber, still no long term damage done, some blue roll, sellotape and the inside of a loo roll, sorted him out, apparently it took 4 hours to stem the bleeding !
It's a bit milder now, hence the fog so the dehumidifier is back on. He tried to fire up the Webasto but again it refused to start, he spoke with his man before climbing on board and they're going to do a fuel test to see if moisture is a problem, then replace the burner with a new on and adjust the C02 levels - progress.
Skip has also been enquiring about my life raft. It seems it was 3 years ago it was last serviced so due for another, but he wants to put in in a canister and hang it off my stern rail where currently a life line is hung, but it makes sense. Conditions have to be pretty dire to even consider using one, not that I want anyone to leave me in such a state. A couple of years ago he dragged it out of the stern locker and strapped it across my deck, useful in a hurry but an eyesore, especially as its in a bright yellow valise. He'll need to get a stainless steel frame made up but it'll be right where you want it should the need arise. The solid canister, like a decent suitcase, will be white and match my hull.
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So skip popped down today and took the Websto unit off. The picture above is the burner unit itself and you can see this is quite black with carbon deposits, probably a sign that it's not burning efficiently or hot enough, allowing the deposits to build up.
Having said that skip says that his friendly chap reckons it's not too bad nor is my diesel contaminated. You can see a very light patch next to the glow plug a good sign. So he's going to get it back on board and running again and get the chap to plug his lap top in and see what's happening. There's a suspicion that may be the fuel pump stopped ! The saga continues.
I understand that a new life raft has been ordered and it will be in a canister rather than the valise the current one is in, including a frame and this will be hung off of the stern rail in the centre where a man overboard throwing line currently lives. At least it will be readily accessible should the need arise and create more space in that cavernous locker.
