In fact, I hadn't thought of a lot of things which was what made the 5-day offshore survival course so interesting.

The content was very comprehensive and in theory I could be of assistance not only to myself, but to others stuck up wind turbines, on fire, in the water or in need of CPR. It was also a good indicator of how many muscles you don't use in a normal day! The egress from a downed helicopter wasn't included in the exercise as transfer to wind turbines is almost exclusively by boat. It seems that helicopters are used mostly for crew transfers to oil and gas rigs - something I don't get involved in.

Next door to the training unit, some chaps were fixing one of the synchromesh gears on this Sherman. This particular model is powered by a Chrysler multibank engine with 5 banks of 6 cylinders arranged radially around a common block. At over 20,500cc it managed about 800yds to the gallon and was able to keep going on 18 cylinders.

Before I went off on the course and as the fine spell of weather looked set to continue, we organised a run to Old Buckenham Airfield. Awkward obliged with a demonstration of some of the complexities of the Watusi while we waited for the café to open. The Hillman was still having trouble starting - running on 4, then 5, then 6 by the time I got to the main road. Having renewed the battery - that seemed to help a bit - I put the meter on the plug leads - all OK - and then ordered a set of new NGK's...

... which arrived just in time for me to meet up with the East Coast Sidewinders breakfast run to a farm café near Needham Market. As I took the old plugs out, I noticed that one of them was a completely different spec to the rest. How it got there I have absolutely no idea. Anyway, with the new plugs installed she straightaway started up on all 6 and I purred down the A14 at around 60/65mph without a problem.

I was the first to arrive at the farm and was interested to see a lot of Vikings moving about. True to historical form, it wasn't long before they started knocking each other over the head. I wasn't a party to the substance of their dispute, but a lack of breakfast can often lead to this sort of contretemps.

Then it was back to the grindstone and an opportunity to gain a bit more experience with MIG welding. A further 50 pipes had to have brackets and hoops attached - 150 pieces in all - which, by the time I'd finished, reminded me that I need to extend the legs of my welding table by at least 12". It took me a while to straighten up again. As I mentioned in my last post, the angle of the torch is critical and, as I've since discovered, so is the distance of the torch from the work. No doubt there'll be other factors I haven't yet thought of.