March started with the Kitchen floor being flooded - the floor boards took over 3 weeks to dry. However by the middle of the month I'm thinking about getting Seatern sailing again! Not that Seatern has not been used during the winter. She is moored at the jetty and I quite often spend evening and sleep on board - it's nice to wake up on a winter's morning on the river.
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Flooded Kitchen!
[diary entry]
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New Cabin |
A portacabin has appeared on the next jetty to mine. Jo has rented space to a scaffolder who works on festivals and uses it as an office on Thursdays. I was worried about the way it was moored and my worries were justified. If I was mooring something like that (1) I'd design and implement a proper way to moor it first, and (2) I'd watch it go up and down on at least one tide. He has now altered the mooring but I think something much better is needed.
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SeaOsprey on the river | 
Needed to get afloat so took my canoe SeaOsprey down the river to the entrance to Ocean Village and then back up the river to Woodmill.
There are more comments and photos from the trip [here]
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New anemometer cups, air draft, and Outboard Tests
[Seatern Notes]
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Fitted Vibra-stop pads and tested
[Seatern Notes]
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Wash down | Spent the afternoon washing down Seatern's top-sides. The aft buoyance hatch covers seem to have turned particularly green this year as have some of the ropes. Possibly the relatively mild winter has not helped. It may have been below 10C a lot but rarely below freezing and not that much frost. | |||
Converting Stove unit to Butane | 
For some time I've been thinking about using a Butane stove for cooking rather than the Spirit Stove. Now that I've realised that I don't use Seatern in winter it seems a good idea. It will mean that I'll be using the same butane cartridges for heating the boat and for cooking. I spent today modifying the gimball unit to take a Brightspark stove. It still needs some modifications but I'm sure it will work - the problem being that the balance of the gimballs will change as the gas is used up. I'm going to use some small weights to keep it balanced.
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Dramatic Incident at Calshot
[NCI Notes]
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SeaOsprey Navigates the Itchen
[Seatern Notes]
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Odd jobs | Improved the balance of the "new" butane cooking stove; put the main and mizzen on Seatern; re-instaled the power system; and tested the ballast pump and the Tiller-Pilot. |
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Diary/Sailing Log entry
