7th to 17th June 2017 Rest, recuperation and maintenance.

After the end of the Music Festival one feels down and a bit depressed. So much to remember and I forgot to mention the songs, dances, and costumes of a group of aboriginal Taiwanese musicians.
However there is maintenance to do. First is a visit to the doctor to get routing blood tests done and to get our TBE reinoculations ( For over 65's it should be done every three years). Next come doing the washing, cleaning the boat and starting on the boat improvements planned for the year.
Toilet Mods
The previous year's installation of the new toilet and tank system created problems by omitting a vented outlet loop which made it likely the toilet would flood and potentially sink the boat. A second problem was wrong labelling on one of the valves which made pump-out impossible and which we only recognised at the end of the season. The first problem was corrected by installing said vented loop but this brought problems in its wake. The sanitary tubing used needed heating to make it possible to get it onto the various tube ends. Boiling water was useless so Ihad to heat it over the gas cooker.  My first efforts resulted in a leak and I had to improvise a former to push down inside the hot pipe to expand it. It still leaked until I applied a second jubilee clip and Sikaflex. Job done; eventually. Relabelling and a certain amount of practice has solved the second problem - but - operating a toilet system with at least two pumps and five valves is inevitably rather complicated.
Upgrading Switch Panels
Over the winter I bought two six-way switch panels and a smaller connection panel from Minilin. I had several problems with this job. The first was in cutting neat holes in the panel and this required that I buy and learn to use a coping saw. It is a pain to learn how to assemble the saw and blade while the blade is threaded through a hole in a piece of wood. I needed at least two more hands. The second was in making more room behind the panel to contain the new wiring a nd large switches. Cutting holes and sawing the fibreglass cabin liner was not one of the nicest jobs.
The re-wiring, by contrast was fairly easy except for a revised connection to the mast-head light where I needed to include a two pole, two way, switch to allow the masthead light to be either a tricolour or an anchor light. I finally got the system to work but only after realising that I'd fitted the mast cables the wrong way round. The steaming light really did not care which pole was positive which delayed things a bit.
I also included both a cigar lighter and a smaller similar socket plus a small digital volt-meter which is proving surprisingly useful.  Each time I switch on a load ( light, pump etc.) the voltage drops.
Excursions
We've also done a number of smaller jobs as always but also found time for pleasure.
Ingela the, harbourmaster's partner, invited us to see both his and her houses and this proved superb. Both live close to water with large gardens and beautiful tranquil forest and water views. We had our wild-life moments too. We watched a pair of grebes who had built a very messy nest in the water close to a drt rock. The hen eventually moved in and was promptly mounted by the cock. He stood quite upright on her back and exited forwards over her head which we thought rather cruel. Undeterred by the quacking ducks upbraiding him he repeated the process.
Later, a pair of roe deer rushed twice round the garden and then ran off, presumably on the same errand as the grebes. We went to the Botanical Gardens near Stockholm University on a beautiful area next to the water in the north of Stockholm. We walked through a wetland area with lovely flowers and equally lovely and fairly confident Brent geese and goslings and then into several specialised areas including a very Swedish version of a Japanese garden. We much enjoyed the tropic house with a collection of Victoria Regina lilies.  I had not previously realised that they have nasty thorns on the backs of their leaves. Our return from the park was marred by an intense cloud burst which marooned us in Ostermalms square dodging from cover to cover. I finally realised we could get by underground train to Karlaplan where Kristin could get her watch battery replaced. I bought a cheap umbrella there, so the rain immediately stopped.  We are still in harbour awaiting the arrival of our friend Heather and enjoying the sunshine.