Circle of Black

Weather Haiku

Encased and entrapped
In this circle of black which
Revolves and confines.

This is not my picture, but you would not believe the blackness of the clouds that are currently surrounding us here in the marina tonight.
The weather is on the change, and the wind’s coming from the North West, so maybe the Met Office was right and an arctic blast is about to hit.
We’ve been doing some routine maintenance on the boat today, running the engine, topping up with water (when it’s really cold, the water is turned off to the pontoons though the shower block and laundry isn’t affected), checking the fuel and generally making sure that we have plenty of supplies in, just in case.
The water level has gone down to 3.9 metres, having recently risen again to over 4.1 metres.  Gangways to the river moorings are still underwater, but at least we can see the bottom of the car park again.
I counted 47 ducks on our way back from Maggie’s 5 o’clock pee break, some fighting over residence on the recently uncovered bank top.

Basin 2 from the residents road Jan 2016

Basin 2 in the cold spell 2015

My second picture was taken last year when we had ice on the marina surface. If you look closely to the right, you will see grass and a concrete ‘pathway’ which usually stands a good three feet above the water level, but is completely underwater in the picture above it which was taken last week.

Last year, we were warned that the coldest time in the marina was 17th January until 17th February. Already we can feel a drop in temperature, but so far our little rads are keeping the chill off between 1 and 2 on their thermostat controls. We have run the central heating on board, but needed to get the boat warmed up as it had been empty for so long.
Our old friend Condensation has arrived, but we are aware that it is mainly down to a case of ventilation, so have replaced our solid doors under the bed with the meshed ones Hubby made last year, and make sure that when I’m cooking (during the day now, not in the evening), we have a window open.

We’re glad we’d bought a new king size duvet prior to our house sitting period. Now Hubby can roll over and I still have some (and vice versa). It’s thicker and heavier than the other one, so hopefully Hubby won’t be needing quite so many extra layers this year!