November 2022

Winterisation of the vessel is now in full swing. Down below in the Boiler Room, the final touches of the boiler lay-up are pretty much complete. The furnaces, combustion chambers, tubes and smokeboxes have been brushed and vacuumed and the water spaces emptied and dried out. Condensation has always been an issue in the boiler over the cold winter period, with numerous methods tried to counter the problem with varying levels of success. The latest and most successful has been the introduction of a dehumidifier which has left the internal and external surfaces bone dry. For de-humidifiers to work efficiently it is necessary to seal the area being dried – easier said than done on a vessel such as ours. We have pretty much solved the problem by fitting the funnel cap and putting covers over the Boiler Room vents, so our nice clean dry boiler is now ready for the Boiler Inspector’s inspection next year. The condensation problem is not confined to the Boiler Room, as the Engine Room with all its shiny brass gauges, beading, pipes and plaques together with our bright steel motion also suffers during the winter. We have combated that for several years by applying kitchen cling film to all the brass and bright parts, and this, in tandem with the dehumidifier mean that the green oxide that used to form is a thing of the past. Also down below in the Engine Room, we have set about the task of replacing our existing Worthington duplex General Services pump. This has given many years of great service, and whilst it can easily handle most of the tasks it is asked to perform, it struggles when asked to top up the boiler when this is at full pressure. This task is usually performed by our live steam injector, with a vertical steam pump as back-up, but on the basis that you can’t have too many methods of maintaining boiler water levels, and we were fortunate to be offered a suitable replacement, we are taking the plunge. The issue with the existing pump is that the cylinder to buckets ratio is wrong for the job. In order to pump water against the boiler pressure of 180psi you have to create pressure above 180psi and to achieve this, the cylinders have to be larger than the buckets and this is the case with the new pump. Another outstanding task involves the replacement of the wind generator which after several decades of service threw in the towel, having failed due to embrittlement of the insulators. A new unit has been purchased with a state of the art regulator, but we have decided to re-locate the unit from the original position of forward/starboard of the Engine Room casing to aft/port of the casing. This has been decided due to the original unit being perilously close to the bunker top hatches through which, with craneage assistance, we take bunkers of coal in large rubble sacks. Unfortunately several blades have been lost from the generator in the past when they have come in contact with a swinging rubble sack of coal and re-location will eliminate the problem. Plans are now being made for the 2023 season, and we are very much hoping to be in Canning Half Tide for the Eurovision Song Contest albeit that singing aboard is definitely banned!! Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.