Without even a knock at the door, the stove arrived at 7:30 last night. Hilary and I heard the soft shush as the UPS driver slid the 35 kg box across the carpeted hallway.
I opened the door and shouted thanks to the hastily retreating driver.
The UPS website had promised delivery before 3 PM, so I was quite nervous that I wouldn’t be back from working on the boat and picking up Hilary at daycare before the package arrived. I expected that something insured for more than $3000 would require a signature upon delivery. I was wrong.
It was the first day that we had any professional services attend to Hilary. A place called Full Life was recommended by Lisa Ordway, one of the owners of our Marina. The people are very nice, and things seemed to go well.
Hilary really doesn’t know or recognize my name; I was uncertain whether she would recognize me when I picked her up.
According to Kristen, Hilary was mostly engaged, though she would not pick up a brush when they were water coloring… This is in keeping with Hilary’s disinterest in creating art. She did, however, become quite engaged in helping a young woman who does not have use of one of her hands. This is also the Hilary we know.
When I dropped Hilary off, Kristen, the social worker, met Hilary, and engaged her. Hilary looked away from me during the engagement, and when she looked back it was clear she did not know who I was.
It is the nature of the disease, but a bit of a heart twist nonetheless. Hilary walked away with Kristen without looking back at me.
According to Kristen, towards the end of the day Hilary wanted to go home, and wanted to know who was there to take her.
Kristen didn’t know this, but this is completely typical behavior for Hilary. She often wants to go ‘‘home,’’ and may worry that her family – sometimes her parents – don’t know where she is. Kristen told her that ‘‘John’’ would be coming to get her, but, of course, this name means nothing to Hilary.
When I arrived to pick her up, Hilary was looking at an art book. When she looked up and saw me, it was clear that she recognized me: our interchange resumed as it has been for the last many months.
When we arrived home, the mail carrier, Mo, delivered a Plastimo Iris 50 compass from England (it was a day of UK business transactions – I had a conference call with a company in London earlier in the day).
I checked the UPS website continuously throughout the afternoon, especially as 3 PM drew near and then passed. I was worried that the stove would be delivered to the wrong address: I would merely receive an email stating that it had been delivered somewhere else.
The stove was tightly packed by John and Kat with many, many smaller bundles wrapped in newspaper, then bubble wrap, then plastic packing
tape.
By this time our friend April had arrived, and we three had a wonderful time unwrapping all the parts and assembling them.
Despite the pictures, the stove is necessarily small to fit in the space on a boat. However, it weighs well over 25 kg. It is clearly constructed of a steel or iron frame with stainless steel panels.
In our correspondence, John Gardner had written to me that I would be impressed with the quality of the stove: parts are machined, and the craftsmanship will be first rate. Absolutely true on all counts.
It will be a more than a week before I install the stove. The main cabin is currently in shambles, with portions of the headliner down, the wall and door to the head here at the apartment being refinished, the new water bladder only half installed, partially finished and duplicate cushions pushed into the V berth. (No pictures, as this much destruction is something I would prefer Jennifer not see.)
[I’ll try and edit down a video of the arrival and unpacking of the stove. It is a very impressive device.]
It is in many ways technology from a time very gone by, and the construction and techniques are decidedly British. It has the look and feel of things British made in the 1960s. Things I would come in contact with while growing up in Toronto.
The easiest example is the pressure tank for the kerosene fuel. The threaded neck for the pressure pump is part of a curved plate that is welded to the inside of the tank. This construction yields a completely smooth exterior of the tank, and also means the pressure (25 to 30 psi) presses the plate against the inside of the tank, rather than pressing the plate away from the tank if it had been (less expensively) welded to the outside.
There does seem to be one problem introduced during the rebuild. The absolutely gorgeous gimbal pins must fit through two holes, one on each side of the stove, that are placed for the purpose. During the rebuild a metal strap inside the frame of the stove was replaced, but no arc was cut into the strap for the arch of the gimbal mounting hole.
I think I need to grind this away with a Dremel tool, though I have some truly cool files that Erwin and I picked up at the Campbell River Home Depot last summer – a memento of the trip.
The question still remains, where do I mount the pressure tank so that it is accessible, but out-of-the-way? The basement seems like the place, but then, they could also be mounted in a cockpit locker. Any ideas?
John,
That part about eBay coming up with 2 stoves, just as you’re about to take delivery of an expensive rebuild, is just Murphy’s Law at its finest!
Erwin
Yes, after two empty years of alerts on both eBay and Google, Friday, long after the stove shipped two Taylors stoves showed up. 
One in Texas that was a shambles for $450 and another BRAND NEW stove on Bainbridge Island (30 miles from here) for $1200.
A note on the the price: Puget sound is full of project boats that are eventually given up: Either too many years have passed and the owner has realized that the project will never go to completion or the owner has died – I’m not sure which is more common. Startling deals show up as a result. This stove lasted on eBay less that one day…It was gone by the time the daily alert arrived. It had sat in a warehouse for many years.
9-MAR-2016 06.00 PT I just spoke with John Gardner who tells me that the gimbal bolts will thread through those partially occluded holes. I was able to do so on the right side of the stove here at the apartment. The left will take more effort.
In conversation with John, this is a new stove, not a rebuilt as we had contracted. It was installed but never used. The condition of the device reflects that. So it will be us who will put in the first scratches, etc.
