Light at the end of a long long tunnel!!


We didn't go to work on Tin Tin but stayed in Trotton doing other things.

I helped Paul fit new headboards to beds then went out and worked on some art... Well what might pass for art in some people's eyes!
I took the nicely planed and sanded scaffold plank, we will use as a passarelle, and inscribed TIN TIN in large letters by charring the surface of the wood.

I also added the MMSI number, 235111559, which is her personal ID and can be used by other ships to make direct calls over the radio without broadcasting to all and sundry. It can also be entered in sites like MarineTraffic.com to search for Tin Tin's latest reported position using the AIS (Automatic Identification Signal) which is usually monitored up to 30-40 miles off shore, but won't report our position if we are further away than that from a receiving station.

The very good news is that the engine has been running this afternoon and we will take her out for a sea trial on Saturday morning! All being well, that should allow the engineers to get to work finishing off and tidying up at which point we can do a final clear out, and et on with the mammoth task of transferring the stockpile of foods onboard. Once that is completed we have to have the compass swung so that it is adjusted to the change in magnetic field induced by the new engine, and THEN we will get ready for a departure by looking at tides, and weather to time our FINAL departure from Portsmouth!

I shall post the departure date and time as soon as I know it!... don't forget you can easily track Tin Tin's progress, wherever she is in the world, by clicking on the link at the top of the page 'Where in the World is Tin Tin now???'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

100 Years on

Image
Occasionally over the next four years I will record the actions of some of my ancestors during the First World War. 100 years ago today, on the 7th August 1814, a great great Uncle of mine, Charles Robert Stephens, enlisted with the Royal Engineers (Territorials) in Falmouth aged 42. He was comfortably employed in the Family rope making business and enlisted the second day after Great Britain declared war on Germany without telling his brother and business partner. This probably caused some tension between them because Charles was the company Engineer and in addition the family was prominent amongst the Cornish Quaker community. After building defensive positions around Falmouth his unit was attached to the Hampshires and Wiltshires and served in France building bridges and water supplies for trenches and hospitals. He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1917 having been twice mentioned in dispatches.
Read more

Ocean trash disposal... what can and cant go over the side?

As we traverse the oceans we try not to leave too much of an environmental impact from the waste we generate aboard. There are some types of waste we cannot keep on board for any length of time, black water being the most obvious, although we do have a limited holding capacity for when we are in port or areas where it is against the law to dispose of human waste direct to sea. Out on the deep ocean we have no qualms of disposing of our sewage straight to the sea. The same is true of our vegetable and food waste, which we dispose of over the side in the hope that it will degrade without any measurable impact on sea life. As a crew we are all agreed that all plastic waste should be kept aboard but what has split the crew straight down the middle is what to do with metal waste? One view is that as long as you ensure that the tin can is guaranteed to sink, and that the sea bed deep enough, then we should go ahead and throw them overboard. This half of the crew feel that the steel or alumin...
Read more