So much work was done to the Duck in 2020. The new trailer was acquired, renovated and the boat transferred. Then the water pump was renovated. Then the thermostat was removed, breaking the gasket, so I made a new one out of gasket material.
Duck was ready! I wanted to do a “tie-down” test in the water. I wanted to know that the engine could actually pack foot-pounds of torque into that Prop. So the plan was to take it down to Bucklers Hard and drop it in the water for a trial. The weekend at the start of November was selected, before the weather really broke down.
Boris announced the “Circuit Break” to stop COVID spreading, so we could have Christmas. That was that! I wrapped the boat up for the Winter.
Warmer weather invited the covers to come off and a check all around. The “Depth Sounder” wasn’t working! Great! So I looked for another, and after some head scratching I decided to go totally nuts and get a Garmin Chart Plotter, with a ClearVu Transducer. Lots of pennies spent there.
The rain kept me from fitting the new equipment but eventually a clear weekend. Uncover the boat again I reasoned that getting under the desk was difficult as usual, because of the seats. We had already elected to replace the seats so I thought why not rip them all out and get on with fitting the Garmin.
The current seats were fitted on two pieces of Decking board, so it was a matter of unscrewing those and lifting everything out. Done. But something was wrong with the floor. It was moving where it shouldn’t. So up came the rubber matting, to find an aluminium sheet underneath. That came out. I stood on the floor and went straight through.
Bugger!
