Frozen in!

It was time to run the Webasto heater. To ensure its continuing health, the system has to be run for at least an hour every month. I've said that before, yes? So we visited Kantara on Friday to do just that. The inside of the boat was only three degrees above freezing, but the small electric heater and the dehumidifier were doing their job, and not using silly amounts of electricity (the price of which, of course, has recently increased considerably). 

I said we visited "to do just that", but in fact we wanted to top up the diesel tank to the very top. This is so that there's no space for condensation to form, causing water to drip into the fuel and making an infestation of diesel bug more likely. We've had that once, and want very much to avoid it! This is what it eventually does to the boat's fuel filter.

There was ice on the marina pond, but it was very thin, and easily broken with a bamboo stick. So off we set for what would be Kantara's last trip of the year - just a few tens of metres to the service platform. It didn't happen. As Grace put the engine in gear to reverse out of the berth, it became obvious that the ice was far too thick for us to move. We'd made the mistake of testing the ice at the front of the boat where the water is sheltered a little from the frost. Just sixty feet away, our stern was firmly iced in.

Let's hope January will let us do the job. Have a Happy Christmas, and a very much better New Year!

Christmas 2016 on board Kantara.