Cap'n Spack Jarrow

When your stick just isn't big or hot enough...

(I am talking welding here obviously)

Despite my ongoing general rubbish health (cue violins) I have made some efforts to press on with some of the jobs which are still hanging over me. One of the main ones was the removal of the steel grey water tank which was parked at the bottom of the stairs. Having drained it down as best I could and found it was still hernia-inducingly . . .

Read More

February 03, 2017

"Holy Rusted Metal, Batman"

Two blog posts in quick succession - holy rusted metal indeed Batman. Sometimes I think I am too good to my loyal readers.

A week of general hard but very frustrating graft has passed. Essentially the movement of ballast, bilge boards etc has continued but I have been trying to remove items which are cluttering the place up. The oven . . .

Read More

January 25, 2017

A Quick Recap for New Readers

Having recently put a sign on the side of Zeelandia pointing people towards this blog, my Beloved has intimated that possibly I am getting too tied up with the nuts, bolts and widgets of the renovation. This is true as my day generally revolves around solving the myriad of physical and engineering problems which rear their ugly heads with . . .

Read More

January 25, 2017

Scraping the Bottom of the... Barge?

(Yeah, there's only so many bilge jokes you can make, although Trump's Presidency will no doubt increase it exponentially...)

Sunday. A day of rest my ar$e...

With the oil reservoir removed I have given it a bit of a rub down and wire brush, applied Vactan to areas of rust or plain steel and allowed it to go off overnight. Today one of the sides was painted, ironically in British racing green... There was an original off blue-ish sort of colour which would . . .

Read More

January 16, 2017

Battle of the Bilge

Okay, so the video here is a pretty cracking cure for insomnia but it shows quite graphically the problems I am up against in the bilge. Having run out of stuff I can viably do on the engine (apart from niff naff and trivia or repainting the oil reservoir which really isn't the best use of time), I have gone back to the bilge to derust . . .

Read More

January 12, 2017

It Shouldn't Be This Hard, Seriously...

(not a euphemism)

The engine has finally been drained of oil. But it took time. Since the engine was leaking I couldn't fire it up to get the oil warm so had to drain the central reservoir whilst sat in a cold engine room. Yeah, it took a while. Add to the fact there isn't a big sump plug you can whip out and bleed, it all has to come through the small . . .

Read More

January 09, 2017

Open Heart Surgery on 'The Beast'

Firstly let me wish all my dearest readers a very happy New Year and hope they had a relaxing and enjoyable festive period. Mine has been suitable relaxed as I have been away from Zee for a while and despite the worry of the rotten hull giving way and me coming back to find 2 masts sticking up from the water where once there was a slightly . . .

Read More

January 04, 2017

Archive

This update link alerts you to new Silvrback admin blog posts. A green bubble beside the link indicates a new post. Click the link to the admin blog and the bubble disappears.

Got It!