MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

To keep the other old Sailor radios company, just acquired their big brother. Double whammy for us, apart from looking the part, and giving a massive range should we ever push way off shore, the thing is so sodding heavy it'll correct the wee list to port the old girl has without having to tinker with all the nasty ballast left in the bilges, is valve powered so we can stand the kettle on top should we run out of gas or bits of boat to burn on the stove, and chucks out so much power we can hang bacon off the aerial, do a quick radio check and have have breakfast. Everyones a winner. If anyone has a manual for one they'd let us copy, be mucho appreciated. Thats the Ships Dog in the background BTW - Alfie is actually a real dog as well, unlike the ship's cat who isn't a real cat at all, in fact I'm not sure the ships cat is a real anything - he does exists, he just isn't a cat, of indeterminate origin/species, but does hale from wearside, which probably explains it. No2 was apparently spending the weekend 'doing stuff' on the boat with the ships cat for company. Awaiting the outcome of that still,

- getting on for 500W output power & affectionately known as "The Big Set" amongst the fishing community - having loaded it into the car I now know why!

new gearbox has been bought (did I say that already?), just needs a coordinated effort to get it into the engine room - at this point think Chuckle Brothers - to you to me to you. Should gives us back a missing knot or 3, but may cause the global oil price to fall again with anticipated fuel savings (up yours OPEC). But having loaded the big set into the car, 2CWT of gearbox will be a breeze

Scary week this week, surveyor coming to have a poke around - hope he's got a sense of humour (and wellies). Its ging to be interesting to say the least, Decided I'll not tell him about the blog till we've got the report!

*Shamone*

Ship's cat did us proud today skippo! Not only can he lick his own bits but also has a knack for "The Genius". After our first trek to the bin area with a full complement of rubble sacks and arms like Grape Ape, said cat mewled helpfully - "Why don't you bring the car round, it may make things easier" It did! One hairy moment though, we borrowed Mr. Quadrini's ladders and on the last schlepp Catboy had come over all confident and leapt up the ladders like a .........err Cat. Ladders did a comedy slip backwards and stopped an inch from the end of the pontoon. Ship's cat was left hanging by his chin from the top of the wall, almost as funny as your "Where's the Stairs" routine.

I've wallpapered the inside of the hull with a bit of wood chip, survey will be a doddle, they like that kind of thing.