This morning we put the jet boat back in the water. As it was still and cold overnight the cove was covered in a small amount of ice but we were able to break through it even in reverse. With a small amount of snow on the slipway we learnt our lesson from last time and pre shovelled the snow out of the way so as not to have the trailer wheels bogged down! It was all work on the boats again today. Matt installed a refurbished seawater pump on Prion”s port engine as there was some weeping out of the one on the engine.

While I changed out the oil on the jet units reverse cylinder drive on Pipit. It was a lot easier than on Prion’s as I learnt a few little tricks.

The random chocolate box (not a real box of chocolates!) with wires in it and bare wires under the console was my next job as I traced them all. I had wondered why we had two GPS antennaes on the roof and how they were wired up but hadn’t had a chance to really investigate as it means taking down panels inside the cab. Turns out the random bare wires flapping around is a spare antennae and the chocolate box had the primary one wired up to it. As I was busy with a few other jobs I had Tommy come down and put in bullet connections so they can be easily swapped in the case of a problem. He hates boats and how little space there is on them – I told him the jet boats are positively spacious in comparison to most..

Lunch time was again at the hydro with a tasty roll (made by Ali) and it was back to base for more tidying of electrical items on the boats as I try to remove the gremlins.

As the day wasn’t that exciting above is a picture that Ali took and just gave to me. It is taken at Deadmans about 10 days ago when we were coming back from the poo collecting at Maiviken. I am carrying Sam’s skis and have a pulk attached to me while skiing which was quite a challenge!

In the outside world my brother should be finished with Fastnet in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. He has spent the whole day drifting around Plymouth 30 miles from the finish in no wind.

And just in case you are interested in what other people on base have to say about life at KEP today …

Tom Whitfield
tonights dinner conversation; we found out gold has a E number, we discussed the letter Q doesnt get used enough and U is always bumming Q and that Alastair Wilson has been using the sewage outfall hammer to break up our drinking ice

Sam Crimmin
thinks that breakfast condiment top trumps and the facebook page for the stolen guinness mug may be an indication that my fellow KEP residents have been in isolation a little too long.