Day 2 but wasn't it bl.....dy freezing last night!

There is one very big disadvantage of living on board while blacking the boat. No heating!!!!! The dock is covered so it would be madness to light our stove. We did put the diesel heating on for a while but again the problem is with the fumes ( We had one scare recently and I don't want another!!) All we have is a small 800 W heater. Again the disadvantage of that is it eats up the electricity and when you are an a coin metre it is even more noticeable. Last night both of us froze. Our thick bedding was put away when we had the mini heatwave so all we had was a summer quilt and each other. I felt particularly concerned about Jade. Shes not getting any younger and as a pampered pooch she must also feel the cold! Tonight isn't going to be quite so cold, so the forecaster informed us, and hopefully our little heater will take the chill off. We will just have to keep feeding the metre with £1 coins!

Took Jade out for a long walk while Ian use the grinder. She has become a real nervous wreck every time something out of the ordinary occurs. On the walk to Sawley I spied this years new ducklings, the first I have seen.

New family

The same family making there way across the golf course.

Then a little further on I noticed smoke coming from some bushes. Further investigation  revealed a small wood fire and a young man huddled over it. He looked very cold. 15 minutes later I walked by again in the opposite direction. This time he looked as if he was trying to repair the inner tube of his bike. Its horrible to think he might not have a home to go to. Makes me realise just how lucky I really am.


His fire is in the right hand side of the picture.


I took a few more birdie photos. They are all common species and I still live in hopes of capturing something rarer.

Crested Grebe




No idea what this bird is. I just liked the photo


 I took these photos before Ian started with the grinder.  It was all apparent what the ice had done to the hull. Most of last years blacking was non existent and the the steel looked to be very pitted. Every year I say to Ian that we wont travel through ice and every year something happens to make us have to do just that. So I said again to Ian, we will stay where we are if ice is forecast for next year!! His reply, I bet we dont!!



Heather painting our boat. We found it a lot easier if we work on one boat at a time!

 Ian was doing a grand job at getting rid of the rust,and while I was waiting to don on my rubber gloves to start the epic task of blacking the hull, I made a sponge cake in readyness for Colin, Iwona, Oscar, Oliver, Christine, Kev, and Josh to arrive tomorrow. Oh and not forgetting Jades sister Echo. I can see chaos not only in the dock but on the boat as well!



Sponge cake with chocolate butter icing.