10 January 2018

Patricia progress

The challenging job of pin extraction continued today.  More creative methods of extraction have had to be employed to shift some of them due to access limitations.  Suffice to say that we managed to remove all the pins from the stern end.  A great result.


The prospect of working up the front to do the rest poses many problems in that the cab is located right along side and will severely limit our working space for such things as the magnetic pillar drill.  Time will tell!

In the rear decking we noticed a small hinged hatch which clearly had never been lifted in a very long time and took a crow bar to lift, followed by some 'working' before it could be opened far enough to see in.

Covered in a thick layer of grot, one spontaneous comment was:  'Was it the ships compass?'

Well no, it turned out to be a fuel gauge, but indications were that it did not accurately reflect the actual level in the tank, so, perhaps that's why the lid was a bit stiff.