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.