Not all plain sailing

Not sailing anywhere of course because the canal is frozen outside Herbie, but inside we are lovely and warm. We seem to have found the knack of keeping the fire going overnight, so this morning it was just a matter of raking the ashes and putting on a log.

However, all is not well. Our Morco gas water heater needs a bit of work, I couldn’t get it going yesterday and there is a split collar on the water inlet union. Not from ice, I might add, because it was drained down last time we left the boat. It’s a plastic collar and it look like it might have cracked from being over tightened in the past. Anyway I don’t like messing with gas devices so someone from the boatyard is due to come and fix it today. It ought to be serviced periodically anyway. Nothing major I’m sure.

More disturbingly, I couldn’t start the Eberspacher diesel heater which is our alternative source of hot water. Lots of smoke and banging! I suspect ice might be a problem here even though it has antifreeze in its circuit. I’ll wait until warmer weather to see if it starts ok when its not freezing. I’ll put the min max thermometer in the engine bay today to see how cold it gets in there.

So were boiling kettles to get hot water for washing and washing up. Not a problem in the short term. We could start the engine and get hot water that way I suppose, but it doesn’t seem worth the bother at the moment.

It’s nice to be here though. A welcome change from home and a different view out of the window. I wonder what is happening to all the fish that usually surround the boat. Asleep I suppose.