Tag Archives: Fleming 55

Exterminating bugs

7 June 2013 Piers du Pré 1 Comment

Robin of RES replaces the GPS1 aerial of the Furuno satellite compass
*click to enlarge*

Bugs – the bane of Play d’eau’s new Pilot House electronics. Can we really exterminate them?

I remember seeing mother-in-law size cockroaches in Delhi years ago in my flying days. There’d been a flying ant swarm and cockroaches, led by these five inch monsters with their armour plated backs, had come out with their armies to hoover a three Michelin star dinner.

In the airport terminal, some local lads were playing football with them but despite severe kicking and smacking against walls, these monster cockroaches just picked themselves up and carried on scurrying about searching for ants as though nothing had happened. They refused to be exterminated.

We now had a monster somewhere in the electrickery on Play d’eau.

Andy Craig of MEI

Andy Craig of MEI had come to Beaucette Marina on 1st May 2013 and resolved all our electronic woes – or so we all thought.

A few days later, a friend had come from the UK to see us, and in the middle of demonstrating (code for showing off!) our new pilot house equipment, the dreaded ‘Heading Data Missing’ alarm on the nn3d re-appeared with the associated ‘Steering Compass Missing’ warning on the Simrad autopilot, activating every possible audible alarm from the Chart Plotter, Radar, Instruments, and this time, from the Satellite Compass as well which also displayed an ‘Aborting’ message.

Arrrgh! An unknown mother-in-law cockroach had crawled out to mock us.

The GPS1 aerial works again, with same HDOP as the other two aerials in the array — The GPS1 aerial works again, with the same HDOP as the other two aerials in the array
*click to enlarge*

After re-booting the satellite compass many times, I called Andy of MEI. Having listened to my woes, Andy’s gentle voice came back with, ‘You won’t believe this, Piers. We’ve just had a Tech Bulletin from Furuno advising us there’s a potential fault in the GPS aerials they use in their satellite compass. From what you’ve said, the GPS1 aerial has failed which could have been the source of all the original problems.’

Robin of RES (Guernsey)

In the moments that followed, Andy spoke with the warranty desk at Furuno which immediately accepted the warranty claim, arranged for a spare aerial to be despatched from Holland direct to RES (their authorised agent in Guernsey) and authorised them to effect the repair. How brilliant was that!

Yesterday, Robin of RES appeared on Play d’eau and checked the fault remained. It did. Climbing the radar arch and pony mast, Robin unscrewed the cover from the aerial array, removed and replaced the faulty aerial and appeared back in the Pilot House to check it was now working. It was. Brilliant, again.

One mother-in-law cockroach exterminated.

The dreaded Heading Data Missing alarm returns to the nn3d which will be hunted down and exterminated
*click to enlarge*

Any more bugs?

Yes. Two hours later, three more bugs dared to surface. The original ‘Heading Data Missing’ on the nn3d, and two relatively new ones showing as ‘Log’ and ‘EPFS’ in the Radar alarm log. Yet all with no indication of equipment failure.

To me, I don’t believe there’s anything more wrong with any of the equipment. Deduction tells me these bugs are more like mosquitoes hiding in the sentences being dropped onto the nn3d backbone or the speed at which they are talking. A mismatch or confusion somewhere. Time will tell.

So, having exterminated a cockroach we now have three mosquitoes.

Now where’s that DDT?

Piers
from the Nav Table of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

Cooking onboard

Vegetable Stock

7 June 2013 Piers du Pré 3 Comments

All ingredients trimmed, peeled and chopped and in the pot — All ingredients trimmed, peeled and chopped
and in the pot
*click to enlarge*

Stock forms the basis of so many good onboard recipes, and the good news is you only really need vegetable stock. No chicken or meat stock, just vegetable.

Our recipe has been refined over the years and never lets us down and produces a gorgeous concentrated stock which works brilliantly with many of the recipes we’ll be adding as time goes by.

It’s packed with flavour and keeps really well in the fridge for a good three weeks and almost for ever in a freezer. It also scales well if you want to make less or more at a time.

So please don’t use stock cubes or any other form of instant stock which all pale into insignificance in comparison.

Vegetable Stock

Ingredients

6 Carrots
3 Large leeks with as much white as possible
2 Small fennels
3 Small onions
2 Parsnips
8 Button mushrooms
3 Celery stalks plus the very small leaves close to the stalks
Small bunch of Parsley stalks (no leaves)
Rosemary (some)
Pepper corns (say 30)
Bay Leaves (a few)
Thyme (some)

Simmering gorgeousness<br>leave for 2 hours or more — Simmering gorgeousness.
Leave for 2 hours or more
with the lid on but just cracked open
*click to enlarge*

Technique

The ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’ of brilliant stock making.

Do peel and trim the vegetables as if you were going to eat them
Don’t let the stock boil, just simmer
Don’t use the dark green parts of the leek
Don’t squeeze or mash the vegetables to extract extra liquor
Don’t add salt. Instead, add salt when creating the final dish

You’ll need

A large saucepan with a lid (in which to make the stock), a smaller saucepan into which to strain the stock, kitchen knife, wooden spoon, sieve, clean muslin or dish cloth, storage containers (half litre recommended) for the finished stock.

Making perfect veg stock

Clean, peel and trim the vegetables. Cut them into half inch squares or smaller and put them in the pot. Clean and slice the mushrooms and add them to the pot with the herbs and pepper. Add water to half an inch below the top of the vegetables.

Bring to the simmer, making sure the herbs are underneath the surface (use the wooden spoon). Keep it simmering for two or more hours.

Keep the lid on the pot, but just cracked open to allow some of the steam to escape.

You’ll find the vegetables start to shrink allowing the water to cover them. If you need to add a bit more water, only add enough to keep the vegetables just covered.

When cool, strain the liquor through the sieve and muslin (or tea cloth) into another pan. Let it drain – don’t squeeze the remaining vegetables.

Finally, pour your stock into containers and use as and when needed. You’ll have about 1.5 ltrs of strong concentrated stock which can be diluted as required.

Perfect!

Piers and Lin
from the Galley of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.

Servicing / Technical / Nav

Play d’eau goes up in the world

5 June 2013 Piers du Pré 1 Comment

The offending anode bolt was knocked out
*click to enlarge*

In cleaning the bilges I’d found a slight weep from one of the four bolts used to secure the two main anodes to the hull. Its washer was rusted leaving a slight rust stain where water must have oozed from the bolt and dribbled into the bilge. The concern was if the hull was wet from the water ingress.

Up, up and away

On Monday at 1630, Play d’eau took the short cut from Beaucette Marina to St Sampson’s and went up in the world as she was lifted by M&G Engineering in their 75 ton hoist to have the offending anode bolt knocked out, the hull checked for moisture content and a new bolt bedded in.

At the same time, we would take advantage of the lift to check the anodes and clean the trim tabs which had grown the most magnificent, yet embarrassing, seaweed beards.

The offending anode bolt

The offending bolt was knocked out and thankfully, it was clean and bright with no sign of any water ingress at all. It appears that the washer had had its anodising scratched as its nut was tightened causing it to corrode in the salty atmosphere of the bilge. Knowing the integrity of the hull had therefore not been breached, we wouldn’t have to suffer the expense of keeping Play d’eau on the hard for days if not weeks to dry out. What a relief.

Note 1 to self: Cover the exposed nuts and bolts on the inside of the bilge with white grease to prevent a return of worrying corrosion.

The new bolt, greased up to prevent corrosion recurring
*click to enlarge*

Play d’eau’s other anodes

When Play d’eau was lifted in February we checked all 12 anodes and it was only the two prop shaft anodes which needed changing.

And now with her in the strops, all looked OK except for the two on the prop shafts. After just four months they’d almost been completely eaten away which was most unusual. Maybe the reason for the rapid erosion was that we’d used MG Duff’s new aluminium anodes rather than zinc, as M G Duff had recommended.

Note 2 to self: If aluminium was the reason the shaft anodes had worn so quickly, I must use twin anodes or more on both shafts to get a full year’s use out of them – or better still, find zinc anodes again.

The Beard

The hull looked really good with almost no hint of fouling at all. But the trim tabs were another story. They were sporting a truly magnificent full set of whiskers.

The reason for this became evident when they were removed; the anti-fouling had been flaking off leaving bare metal. Far too much of a temptation for the Beaucette Marina seaweeds.

Note 3 to self: Next lift-out, take the trim tabs back to bare metal and start again.

Happy cruising!

Piers
from the Engine Room of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

In just four months the trim tabs had grown magnificent beards of Beaucette seaweed
*click to enlarge*

Beauty and the Beast? — It looked so beautiful, but it had to come off
*click to enlarge*

The anode on the port prop shaft virtually gone in no time at all — The aluminium anode on the port prop shaft had virtually gone in only four months
*click to enlarge*

The anode on the starboard prop shaft virtually gone in no time at all — The aluminium anode on the starboard prop shaft had almost disappeared completely
*click to enlarge*

Cooking onboard