Baby. it’s cold outside.

 It’s coming. That Cold Spell they’ve all been talking about.

The above trees were at opposite ends of our woodland walk in Lincolnshire.

The boats in the Marina are all white, whether they’re painted that colour or not.
Sunday night, temperatures dropped to – 6, and we had ice on the bathroom window.
Last night, Hubby got up at 3am to turn on the heating for half an hour, despite our little heaters being on. I heard him scraping the ice off the bathroom window.
It was pretty eerie hearing the motor echo round the basin. I hope we didn’t wake anyone.
According to the Met Office, the temperature was only – 4 last night.

However, because of the forecast prolonged cold weather, the Marina staff have turned the water off to the pontoons apart from one hour every day until further notice.
Hubby and I had planned for this eventuality, and gave our solution a test drive yesterday before we were in dire need of topping up our water tank.
Our little trolley and 20 litre water containers work just fine, though we have had to modify our transfer methods to include a funnel (to be used for water only) at the (great) expense of one pound as letting it run via the tap takes FOREVER!!!

At the moment, it’s 1º outside. Inside we are 14º which is actually quite comfortable for us.
Getting the heating right inside the boat though is a delicate balancing act.
What works one day, fails the next, but we are working on it, ironing out the problems as and when they occur to the best of our ability, ingenuity and budget.

The original second heater we purchased was as efficient as a chocolate teapot. It would get up to heat, then switch itself off. Fine so far. But then it didn’t turn itself on again until the damn thing was cold!
We took it back (as had a second customer who couldn’t even heat his small Bambi motor home with it for the same reason) and replaced it with another the same as the one we already had.  More money, but it works, and works well. With 6 settings, we have only gone up as far as 3, and with one at each end of the boat, the temperature is more or less constant throughout. We have thermometers at each end too, which takes out all the guesswork.

We’ve secondary glazed several windows, though we had to re-do the one by the kitchen sink as there was a small hole in the seal.
Our picture frames over the portholes are also working, and today we shall be going into one of the larger towns to purchase another frame to do the bathroom. There’s an extractor fan in there so ventilation is available without the need of an opening window.

It was a shame our curtain didn’t work for us though.
When we go to bed at night, the heaters are turned down slightly, Hubby dons his hat and bedsocks, and Maggie snuggles into me.  Hubby feels the cold more than I, so he has an extra blanket on his side.

As I’ve said in previous posts, the on board heating is efficient, but more expensive to run than the electric heaters for long periods of time.
Saying that though, we refuse to be cold purely for the sake of a few pounds.
Everything we spend has been budgeted for, and when Summer returns, our outgoings will reduce considerably.
Swings and roundabouts, as always.

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