MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

So, we got back, have recovered and done a few bits of work on the old girl, but maybe some introductions are in order.

Pansy actually has 2 proud new masters (or possibly servants ) No.1 (from the journey back) is me, No.2 (also from the journey back) is Charlie, who might at some point pipe himself aboard and add some of his own erudite wisdom to these pages, No.3 was merely a conscript we dragged along with us, tried to kill, tried to kill some more, and have subsequently press ganged into being a full time crew member and doer of, err... stuff

Nearly time to get her back out there and let her do her stuff on the fishy front we hope. We've spent a fair bit of time with her, patching her up, and modifying her steering. Well I say modifying, we've thrown most of it away and started again. more of that later.

the usual order of work is as follows, arrive late, usually well after midday, wait for someone else to turn up, have a fag, sit on deck and discuss works for the day, maybe have a beer and a fag, discuss works for the a bit more, wonder who lives aboard the other liveaboard boats, possibly another beer and a fag (can you see a pattern emerging?) but at some point work will actually commence. We do adhere to strict Elf and Safety Guidelines you will be pleased to hear, break times in between work are limited to no more than 75 minutes, and we ensure all involved have a break every 15 minutes so as no to cause any undue stress. The rebels that we are, we actually smoke and have the odd beer whilst working - rock and roll eh!

we've achieved a huge amount so far in terms of things we aren't going to do, so that's been very productive, and have actually done some stuff we are going to do as well. Charlie has learn the sticky delights of mixing up white lead putty and squidgying it in to iffy looking seams, we patched up the original hydraulics and managed to get her turned around so she's now pointing the right way for a swift get away if we need one. the forward hatch has been rubber back to bare wood and oiled, the forward cabin has been emptied of the clutter that was, well cluttering to reveal a few secrets, a multitude of redundant seacocks, handy in case we need to scuttle her while on a top secret mission I suppose, about 2 tons of scrap iron as ballast, and worst of all, the dreaded rot. one very rotten deck beam, the top of one frame that's well on its way and a couple of dodgy knees, which is exactly what I've got after hammering fresh caulking into the seams yesterday. least it looks like it's big enough cabin to fit a cosy double berth in at some point. But yes, caulking commenced (and finished) yesterday, and the seams nicely sealed up. lick of paint over the patched up bits and she'll look heaps healthier

Down in my little hole, major engineering has been progressing. All 4 fuel tanks are now connected up and talking to each other and after much trawling around (sic!) we managed to find a new fabby hydraulic pump, which surprisingly came from a redundant MFV, trawler, fishing boat type thing, maybe it was meant to be, although there's a small niggle though as it is quite large, well very large, just lifteable single handedly, but is now in place, properly mounted and aligned with the engine, but is still an incomplete installation, we're short of one small pipe fitting to give her a proper test. Fingers crossed it'll just do the do, I guess the worst that can happen is it sucks so hard it will flatten the tanks and devour them and the rest of the boat with it in the finest cartoon tradition... So gonna try track down a pipe fitting tomorrow, and give it a test run, if all's well, I'll drain the lentil soup ( or it could be oxtail) that is stored in the hydraulic oil reserve tank, well thats what it looks like, and I'm guessing isn't a good thing, and replenish with a drum of the nice posh (expensive) high temperature slippery stuff