A Reasonable Success.

Our Stormguard Double Glazing film has proved successful reducing condensation to approx 5% of what it used to be. The windows not being totally air tight are allowing some moisture born air into the space between the glass and the film but overall we are very happy with the results. Saves Dot a lot of time each morning not having to wipe all the condensation off them.

Following various other boater blogs it appears that we are not too badly off where we are. We are getting reports of boats being frozen in with ice up to 4 inches thick. We know there is ice both North and South of us but nothing where we are.There has been a few boats,both private and hire, passing through in both directions so the canal must be reasonably navigable but we will stay put for a while longer and see how things transpire.

We wandered into Rugby this morning after missing the bus by a minute or so to try and sort out our 6 months prescriptions that we had received from a locum at our doctors surgery earlier this month. Our usual doctor is unfortunately retiring and made it very easy for us with our prescriptions.  We had one chemist close by who refused to fulfil the prescriptions but we had great success with Boots in Rugby.  We have to return next week to collect the remainder and then we can be off cruising again. (weather permitting!)

Happy New Year to you all

Christmas has been and gone.

We never did get that white Christmas although I believe that there were some areas with snow further north.  We trust that everybody following our blog has had a relaxing Christmas and haven’t been over indulging too much. Our Christmas was a quiet affair with daughter Tracey and phone calls to and from family and friends in New Zealand.

Boxing day was a different story with Tracey’s friend Greg and his 2 son’s Kieran and Tayne arriving. The latter 2 only being 9 and 6 respectively certainly made a difference to the activity and noise levels in the boat but they generally amused themselves with their Nintendo DS’s supplied by Santa or watching a DVD in the lounge. We had hoped on doing a cruise to Hillmorton and back but after a short trip up to the Rugby Arm to wind and take on water our hopes were dashed. Where we had been moored at Brownsover there wasn’t a single piece of ice anywhere but where the canal is sheltered it was still frozen solid. Past experience of cruising through Ice has put us off this practice unless totally necessary, so it was back to where we had been moored at Brownsover until conditions improve.

Recently we have been talking to Paul on Nb Piston Broke and Derek on Nb Uccello about secondary glazing because this time of the year condensation on windows is a real pain. Paul has been experimenting with plastic mouldings and Perspex which can be re-used but they need to be a firm fit and air tight. Derek however had found a product called Double Glazing film put out by Stormguard. This is a single use product that is placed over windows using double sided tape and a hair dryer. At £6.39 a box from Homebase it’s a 10th of the cost of Paul’s version. Derek had already done his boat with reasonable success so we thought that we would have a go. Having more window area than Derek I purchased 2 boxes. It transpired that the film from one box was more than adequate but I had to use all the double sided tape from both boxes. It does say in the instructions that more tape might be needed so why don’t the manufacturer's supply more? Still I believe you can get a wider tape used for carpets but that might be too strong when it comes time to take the film off again come Spring. It might take off any paint or varnish that it touches but that is an ongoing job anyway re-varnishing the woodwork. All we need do now is sit back and see just how effective this Double Glazing film is, we will keep you posted.

A White Christmas – I don’t think so!

How does the old saying go? ‘Red Sky at night, Shepherds Delight’ ( A fine day tomorrow for Christmas Day, we’ll see.)

Merry Christmas to you all

To all our friends, family and readers, we hope you all have a fantastic Christmas.

Snow and Ice.

We have now been iced in for three days in a row. With the occasional flurry of snow just to keep a white outlook the temperatures are hovering between -6.0⁰C to +2.0⁰C so it could be a White Christmas.

Sunday night we had a dinner party with Derek and Carrie from Nb Uccello. On the menu was roast Lamb with roast potato's,parsnips and carrots together with Brussel sprouts garnished with bacon pieces and Carrie made a delicious Banoffee Pie! Yummy. All this was washed down with a couple of bottles of Australian wines, unfortunately we couldn’t find any NZ wines but at least we are supporting the Pacific region.

Monday saw Dot heading into Rugby for some retail therapy and a haircut before meeting Tracey at the railway station, so we are more or less set for Christmas. A visit from the Diesel boat, Gosty Hill later today will see us organised into the new year.

Only a few bits and pieces such as dairy and fresh vegetables to get tomorrow, we don’t fancy shopping on Thursday

We got that one right.

Every time the boat moved there was a graunching noise so we knew we were iced in before we even got out of bed this morning. Our weather station told us that the temperature had been down to – 6.1⁰C overnight. Our decision to move yesterday proved to be the right one.

Today has been glorious with the sun streaming in through the windows which has helped heat the boat saving us some diesel. Even though the outside temperature never got above 2⁰C it was quite pleasant outside mainly due to a lack of wind. As I write this the barometer is dropping and the temperature is now 0.3⁰C with more snow forecast for tonight.