Fair-weather farers

Despite the BBC weather forecasts, the weather over the past several days has been... excessive! The rain has been torrential, and the wind is blowing a hoolie. The boat's rocking and rolling - literally! Over the past week, we've had very low temperatures, lots of very strong wind, rain, fog, sleet and snow. We've been using the Bubble stove a lot during the day, replaced by a fan-heater in the bedroom just before we go to bed, and when we wake.

It took us a while to admit it when we first had Kantara eleven years ago, but we accept now that we are fair-weather farers (looked down on by a certain contingent of hardy canal folk.) The weather is most definitely incompatible with faring at the moment, so we're using the time to get various important jobs done.

An engineer from River Canal Rescue came yesterday, not to rescue us, but to service and inspect the engine. I've done the service myself once or twice before, but would far rather pay to have it done. It's not expensive (and my philosophy is that, if anything goes wrong, they're insured. I'm not!) Kantara passed the inspection with flying colours.

Lee from Days Afloat (now Lee Afloat since his boss retired and sold him the business) has been to fix a water leak in the loo, discovered that it's not fixable, and arranged a date to fit a new one. He'll change the coolant in the engine while he's here, too. (I chickened out when I realised how much bilge water is involved!  And then there's that insurance thing again.)

Colin visited us yesterday to discuss the installation of a Webasto heating system to replace our iffy Alde, which could spring a leak at any moment. It's been great, but they're known to leak when they get old. Emma Jane's (sharing our pontoon) has recently done just that, and theirs was a fair bit younger than ours.

There are jobs for us to do as well. Replacing he seal around the top of the shower tray; finishing a pair of seats Grace designed and made for the well-deck; painting and fitting the taffrail; washing, waxing and polishing the outside of the boat; touching up rusting and damaged paintwork; giving the stern deck rather more than just a touching up; varnishing the interior of the side doors... I may have missed a few! Cleaning the cratch cover was once on the list, but the past two years of our absence and consequent negligence, and the many attacks of bird poo, algae and moulds over that time, have been too much for it, so we'll be having a new one fitted later in the year.

The biggest problem with that list, however, is the weather; nearly all of the jobs are outside. The weather forecast for tomorrow is promising.

We'll believe it when we see it!