Hoorah, hooray, it's boiler lift in day!
After much hard work and tattyfying, the boiler was finally craned back into the boat today-and what a cracking thing it is. The old, black and nasty sightglasses have been restored to their wonderous glory and the Lee Howl boiler feed pump has been rescued from the murky depths of the bilges to sit, resplendant, upon the steam dome. If anyone ever calls me an old boiler again, I shall point them in the direction of Monarch's water otter and admonish them for the error of their ways...anyway, even though I am not adorned with shiny brass fittings and a fabulous steam powered water pump, I think I'm a bit more handsome than the dear old thing (well maybe only just)!
See below for photos of the craning in, she looks a thousand times better than it ever has done-but don't be fooled, it still isn't big enough for what we need and £15,000 still needs to be raised to get a better one.
As you can see, the engine room and boat still looks grotty as hell, but now that the boiler work is complete, and the weather is being kind to us, miracles will be happening shortly. The best of it is, your glorious Skipper now even has a tan which will help move the work along enormously, I'm sure.
Anyhow, enough for now, the sun is well past the yard arm and Monarch's custodian crew are greatly in need the daily rum ration.
TTFN
The Skip
