Dojo at FFA!

The joists in the dojo were dropping even more when I came home this time. Once I'd lifted the solid wooden floor I found that the joists were sopping wet. Literally dripping in water. Seems quite surprising that a lot of money was obviously spent on the solid wooden floor but the same attention wasn't applied to the underfloor portions. Doh! Didn't help that the joists didn't have DPM between the blockwork and the wood and the DPM that was on top of the blocks was actually above the wooden joists but below the level of the water seeping in through the walls.

Spent most of the day lifting the solid wooden flooring. Made sure all the pieces were labelled so that they'd go back into place if I used them again.

Now have to remove all the chip board and joists to see how bad it is underneath.

Also need to decide on how I am going to replace the floor and prevent the same thing happening in another 10 years or so.

Solar powered garden at FFA

I now have one solar panel installed at FarFar Away to power the garden appliances. I haven't decided if this is the final location though. Will need to make a serious frame to prevent them being blown away in the winds.

Even in the shade towards the end of the day the panel was supplying 13V to the regulator. Could probably add more batteries to provide a whole host of things in the garden. The main focus will be lighting but there are other things to include. Music from car stereos, cool boxes, TV's etc. I need to go to a large caravan store somewhere to see what else is available.

Work at FFA!

Have now got the water collection system for the garden at FarFar Away working. Didn't help that I rigged up the switch panel the wrong way round.

Will probably need to do it in two stages though. The first pump cannot lift the water to the top of a two tanks from where it is next to shed #2. It can do to the first level. From there I will need to rig another pump and float switch to get it up to the second level.

Still have to rig the solar panels to recharge the batteries. Need to make a sturdy frame to prevent them getting lifted off in the high winds. So far the batteries are 1 x 100Ah + 1 x 85Ah connected in parallel. May upgrade in the future to 2 banks of batteries.

Trying to find a proper set of outdoor lights to run off 12V. Not proving to be easy. So far haven't found anything which says 'buy me'. Might have to bodge something myself which could be dangerous and or expensive. What I really would like is a chandelier for the middle of the gazebo next to the dojo. I would like to have spotlights around the edge as well.

Have started to remove the flooring in the dojo to gain access to the sub-floor to see the state of the joists. It is a solid wood floor and took me an hour to remove one strip using a power saw. Now have to come up with a system for marking the pieces so they can go back down in the correct order. Part of the issue is that there doesn't seem to be much of an expansion gap around the edge.

Eye checkup

Went to the doc's in Rio today. Leaving the vessel a couple of days early due to the scare about me eye.

Took the driver a little while to find it. Not surprising really as the front door was a small door on one of the main streets just off Copacabana beach. The address was 492 Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

The quack wasn't actually there when  I arrived and I had to get one of the vessel guys to translate to the receptionist to explain what was going on. When he did arrive I wasn't exactly filled with confidence. However first impression was wrong. He was very professional and did everything as I expected after being seen at the REI.

He gave me a quick look without drops, then gave me some eye expanding drops. Gods they worked. The iris was the smallest I have ever seen it. He couldn't see anything wrong per se. He said the cataract wasn't bad enough for him to remove it yet. Yeah well he doesn't have to look through it. He did say that there was an area which had a higher than expected concentration of blood vessels which might need a second opinion. I will ask them at REI when I get another appointment.

After the checkup I was cleared to go to the airport for the flight home. I wanted to get a number plate for my collection. I already have RIO1999, and RIO2004 from my previous visits and thought I'd get one for this visit. Unluckily it wasn't to be. I couldn't just ask the driver to come and pick me up in couple of hours so tried to see what was available in the local vicinity. Nothing. Couldn't even get money out of the atm's.