A bit closer

Had a phone call from Dave from Bluewater on Thursday to say that he was not happy with my last blog entry but none the less he would come down and sort out the weed hatch. Unfortunately on Friday I learned that Ben was not prepared to allow any Bluewater staff onto his worksite.
Hey ho, the fabled ouzlum bird and ever decreasing circles comes to mind.
I haven't spent the last 30 years sorting out all sorts of problems and mishaps to let a minor hiccough like this put me off my stride. So down to the boat on Saturday armed with plenty of files. Got the weed hatch open and wedged it half way up, and spent the next hour and a half working away at the opening on each side working round the hatch best I could. In all, I probably only removed about 1mm of metal but it was enough to persuade the baffle plate through and another 5 minutes with a large flat file just to clean things up had the hatch dropping through cleanly. A layer of paint where I'd been working and some nice new sealing tape to replace the temporary gasket from the last time. Sorted, but working at some funny angles was I glad of a good hot bath when we got home.
Karen and mum Kath were busy cleaning and polishing and generally looking in all the nooks and crannies for the last vestiges of sawdust. Kath has decided the boat is the wrong colour - cos it'll show all the muck - bit late now!
Tried to run the engine to charge the batteries but faced with constant alarm. Ben disapeared into the engine bay to check the electrics and stated domestic batteries not charging, probably belt off. Engine covers opened but belt in place and eveything rotating as it should. Looks like the alternator has failed. Ben will check it out thoroughly and if necessary get Beta to come out next week. He, Mike and a couple of other lads were busy lining out Humdinger while we were there trying to make up for lost time. It looks absolutely huge inside.