Future water tanks

I've just cleaned these drums & will be using them in the future as water tanks. As I need ballast in the boat they should be a great help...

With the tank that I have, plus these eight, I will have 1160 liters of fresh water available onboard! 

Winter approaching!

Lifted the boat out on Monday, the hull was jetwashed and I flushed the engine through with a 50/50 mix of glycol/water. Batteries are out and everything is ready for the winter, I re-sealed the wheelhouse windows with silicone & i'll be working on the boat through the winter as I have my little generator to supply power. Bad news was that the marina don't allow blasting of the hull so i'll need a springtime haulout or dress it up & repaint it for one more year then next winter put it in a marina which will allow blasting.....

Update on work

I have replaced the wooden blank for a nice new Bomar Skylight over the aft cabin & the wood burning stove has now been rubbed down & sprayed black. 

Tomorrow the sink & double gas burners will be fitted and then I'll be moving on to insulating around the windows before the last of the panelling goes up. Following that I'll paint the whole wheelhouse & teak trim all edges & corners.

I bought a comfortable hydraulically damped swivelling bar stool which i'll use while steering...

It arrived!!

Finally my new capstan has arrived but as I only have a week of time at home left , it will have to wait to be fitted.... Looks really good :-)

John.

New capstan

Bought a "capstan A" from C&J capstans, half a ton of pulling power so no more anchor problems :-) NOW, what to do to power it? 

Option 1 :- Heavy cables run all the way from the engine room battery bank.

Option 2 :- Place a 140ah battery in the bow with a charging cable run from the engine?

Hm, to avoid unnecessary voltage drop option 2 seems to be the best answer.....

http://www.cjcapstans.co.uk/

Avon tender

Just bought a small tender for the boat, the 8hp yamaha will go on the back & i'll fit it out for light trolling... As it has a wooden floor it's a stable small platform to fish from.... 

Wiring

Lots of dodgy/joined wiring so some work to do to get it all in shape...