Season ends abruptly

The new bearing that we put in for the layshaft looks a bit dodgy....do we take it out and put the boat to bed or do we risk it? Basically the oil seal has come away exposing the ball race-last time the layshaft played up it broke the bearing housings, bent the pump shaft and caused us to remove both feed and air pumps from the system for a while...not something that we want to repeat! Seeing as we take paying passengers we have to be sensible, even though it will involve letting people down.

Had to cancel one charter as a result, felt very bad about it as it was going to be a total surprise birthday present for her husband. We'd rather cause a bit of upset than be the cause of a drama though!

The bearings supplier has been very reasonable though, it agrees that it is just a dodgy piece of kit and a replacement is winging its way accross. We think that the boat is telling us that she's cold and wants to get out of the water now, so plans are being made to get that done.

This winter we need to plank the foredeck, tidy up the saloon and have a bit of a rethink of the engine room. We've just taken off the float chamber and converted her to manual feed water control to stop the engine from priming when the boiler is slightly over full-this seems to be working well.

Newport is by far the best place for us to operate from and come next year we will be basing ourselves there permanently-ok so it's tidal, at least we'll have extra time for maintainence...plus there is an awfully good pub near the harbour; yum yum.

Also, stop press!!

Lots of punters have been coming up to the boat and giving us donations towards running costs-great I hear you say, except that we're not a charity and it does look rather bad to be accepting gifts such as that without being one. Therefore, as if by magic, a new charity is to be formed...Ta Daaaaaah!

Friends of Monarch will administrate the capital expenditure required to keep Monarch in steam, will help market the boat and also help improve access to the river on which she operates. At last, something legitimate for donations to be given to.

Our first campaign is quite boringly a new boiler fund, we need more and dryer steam with which we will be able to run like a banshee down the Medina with frightening reliability! We are looking to raise £16,000 and any donations or offer of assistance will be cheerily received!

And now we stumble again into the winter layup work....I wonder if they make mulled beer yet?

Monarch and Waverley

Amazing, after a good long time of Monarch running smoothly and with no problems we've managed to get out to sea!!

Who would have thought that after this miserable summer we'd have such glorious September weather! The sea was flat calm and we pottered around Bramble Bank for a while with a full load of passengers waiting for Waverley to appear.

I had a few tears at my position on the wheel as we blew whistles at each other with more than a faint realistion that our whistle is louder than theirs!!!

All had a great time, hope to be able to do it again!