Wrong end of the country

I came up to the boat after work last night, as we were due to have a new fridge delivered this morning, between 9 and 12. So at about half eight, I got the old one out of its space, managed to lift it first onto the well deck and then out onto the jetty, along to the end, and into the car. My delight at receiving a call from a delivery driver at just gone 9 turned to dismay when it became clear that he thought he was delivering it to home, rather than boat; there had been an error between billing address and delivery address. The delivery company got on to Shoreline, who apparently admitted their error -- and delivery has been rearranged for tomorrow.

With the day not going to plan, I thought I might as well go to the tip at New Bradwell in Milton Keynes with the old fridge and some used engine oil I'd found when clearing out the engine hole a few weeks ago. I also now needed to get for food for lunch and dinner. While I was at Tesco, I bought a bag of ice cubes to help with an impromptu fridge -- formed of a bucket and a bag.

I thought I'd do a maintenance task that was overdue: changing the oil in the gear box. This should really be done every two engine oil changes, but gets a little neglected. James from Chance showed us what to do not long after we got the boat (2011, it turns out) and I think it's been done just once since then. There's not much room round or under the gearbox, so you can't get a big container down there to catch the oil. So I cut holes in the side of two plastic bottles, and put them in position. The oil is released by unscrewing a nut on the bottom; when one bottle was full, I switched it for the other, and mangled not to get too much oil in the bilges. Refilling the gearbox with 1.4 litres took every last drop out of the big oil container, which also answered the question of how much was left in there. As we normally end up doing an engine oil change at some point during our big September trip, I went online and ordered some oil, then after lunch went into Milton Keynes to collect it -- making a second visit to the tip on the way back, the get rid of the old oil, the containers, and all the oily rags etc.

This afternoon I have tried, not entirely successfully, to get some boat test related work done. The good news is that the solar panel has been performing very well, with the batteries up at 100 per cent. I hope the fridge turns up early tomorrow, so I don't have to wait about all day.