General Witterings -
Mucky Stuff on Rosy

Spring is now definitely here!!  Yesterday (Saturday 16 Feb) brought out the first batch of ducklings of the year.  Nine of them).

(JOKE - She:  Do you like duckling?

He:  I don't know.  I've never been duckled before.)

Spent last Tuesday cleaning up my stern gland - or rather Rosy's stern gland.  The stern gland of a boat is where the propeller (prop) shaft passes through the hull.  The prop shaft has to rotate, whilst it also has to pass through the hull.  The stern gland tries to prevent water entering the boat through this junction.  On Rosy, the junction is plugged by some cotton (in the shape of some square-section rope), which is saturated in thick grease.  Pumping this grease into the cotton is a daily routine when cruising.  The gland is in a difficult to access spot, and hasn't been cleaned for (at a guess) the lifetime of Rosy.  So on Tuesday I put on the rubber gloves, armed myself with some clean rags and de-greaser, and attacked the gland.  It will do nothing to improve Rosy's performance, but made me feel very virtuous.

I had great plans for Wednesday, but they collapsed on Tuesday evening along with the computer chair.  Wednesday was spent repairing the said chair! 

Thursday was spent cleaning some oily bilges, and re-instating the engine cooling system that I stripped down a week or so ago.  In the evening Jess the Woof came to stay.  She'll be with me for at least two or three weeks whilst her owner (the 68-year-old Rex) goes to Scotland (Elgin) to have his heart valve nudged back into its proper place and his hernia repaired.

On Saturday, several of the owners of other vessels moored in the basin reappeared to see that their boats have over-wintered OK (most seem to be OK).  On Rosy, I spring-cleaned the storage area under the front deck, and oiled the wood on the rather smart garden seat that adorns Rosy's front deck.

Jess the Woof and I seem to be getting on OK.  She's two years old, and she seems to be going through some sort of sexual identity crisis - leastways she keeps shagging my right leg.  She is totally uninterested in my left leg, but finds the right one irresistible.

Questions.  What is wrong with her?  What is wrong with my left leg? 

Toodle pip!!

Bill