Thursday 21^st March 2019

We had clear skies last night for the first time in a few weeks it seems. The full “wolf” moon was glorious and it was almost like daylight.

Brenda walked to Streethay Wharf for masking tape while I spent the morning in the engine hole. The bottom plates were thoroughly cleaned and wiped as was the bay under the engine itself. I had been meaning to getting around to doing this for ages. The batteries were also checked; a job I had ashamedly been putting off. It was impossible to properly check them in place so in the end I bit the bullet and removed them all. An awkward, heavy job. However, none of the cells required topping up but the hydrometer indicated that the specific gravity of all the cells were well down. This cannot be the case, but with the batteries being continuously in use, not unexpected. The sg would start to drop immediately charging stopped. While it felt reassuring to have checked the batteries and found them all in order, they have been in continuous use now for over 6 months and, with nothing untoward found, we are not going to worry about them any longer but start to remove and check them say every 3 months.

In the afternoon the painting of the starboard gunwhale was completed. We went for a walk to the post office in Fradley to send off some letters and, in the evening, had a really tasty, beautiful, venison casserole.

Weather: a nice morning but turned progressively cooler as the day wore on.