December 2025

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Winterisation jobs aboard the good ship Kerne continued. Armed with our recent purchase – a Numatic Twin Motor vacuum cleaner we pressed on with the boiler clean-out, both on the fire and water sides. One of the dirtiest jobs is tube cleaning and soot disposal. The traditional way is to push a wire brush on the end of a metal rod through the tubes, which pushes the soot and light char into the combustion chambers. Once the dust has settled a ‘willing’ volunteer clad in double layer hooded boiler suits and breathing mask, crawls up the furnace and into the combustion chamber, literally kneeling in the large heap of soot which is then shovelled into buckets. These arm dragged out into the stokehold, the soot then being transferred into sacks and taken ashore for environmental disposal. With the increased vacuum and capacity of our new machine a streamlined system of tube sweeping has been adopted. To the end of the vacuum cleaner suction pipe, we have attached a metal cylinder (much like a bin can with the top removed) the sides to which are perforated. The outside diameter of the cylinder is marginally less than the inside diameter of the tubes, therefore by slowly pushing the cylinder through each tube, the soot is sucked up through the perforations, leaving only a small amount of soot in the combustion chambers to be vacuumed up and bagged for disposal. As will be appreciated this new system is well liked by the Engineers! Elsewhere down below Mate Paul has continued with his contortions behind the main engine in his quest to remove the years of oil, grease and general muck that has lain on the inside of the hull shell plates below the timber walkway. Working around several pipe runs with a scraper with your head lower than your backside cannot be classed as a pleasant task, which is probably why the rest of us are happy to let Paul get on with it! Following the usual ritual of hot mulled wine (non-alcoholic variety) and mince pies on the last Saturday before Christmas, the vessel was safely locked up as we all adjourned for the festivities.

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