The final finishing off of the inside has taken much longer than we thought. The perishing plumbing has been leaking. Both leaks are on the central heating side so I have been able to isolate that and use the rest. I have managed to cure one by draining and resoldering but the other leak on the outflow of the radiator is rather more problematic. I am beginning to think that it might be the radiator itself but I need a small mirror to view it. That is something that I have not got.

On Saturday we removed the cratch, top plank and top cloth. The side cloths are rolled up on the gunwale in the approved fashion and the green painted and terminally rotten cratch is now no longer there. We loaded the rest up in the trailer and took them home along with spare bits of wood, plumbing and loads of other stuff.

As we started off for home it started to rain. Very heavily. And a lot. A previous owner had fitted a bilge pump in the port after end of the hold. For this we are pleased.

On the Sunday we went again and cleared out the rest of the tools, installed the fridge in a temporary position and tested that it works with the MSW inverter. It does. We filled the boot with tools and bits and pieces and were amazed at the quantity of gubbins that had accumulated. The reason that we are getting Theodora into reasonable shipshape is that no. 1 son and wife are going on holiday on her next week. It would be good if it were reasonably comfortable. Other work for Sunday was the fitting of a sheet of ply on the bed. It slides out into the corridor so that we have a wider double. We are pleased that the plan worked well and the board stays in the right place when the two of us tested it by sitting on the side over the corridor.

One thing that we discovered in all the rain is that the hold bilge pump is automatic. It has a switch that you can use to switch it on whenever you like but it will cut in when it detects high water level even though the switch is off. Next job for the Saturday when they are departing is to lift the boards in the hold and clean out all the wood shavings etcetera that have accumulated. I would not like the pump to clog up if they get a wet week!