It's that time of the year again!

Our days have been seriously boring since my last post

 (which always makes me think of this!)

We left Kantara two weeks ago, winterised against the very cold weather she endured throughout the several days that followed. In fact, the cold was so severe (minus 14 celsius was recorded on the marina, apparently) we did our normal neurotic thing of going back to her the following week, just to make sure we'd done the job properly, and that she hadn't sprung a frozen leak in some pipe-filled corner we'd overlooked. All was well, and the lowest temperature recorded on our max/min thermometer was minus point 8.

Since then, it's been fairly unhurried Christmas preparation for us; cards written and posted, decorations up, tree, a bit of shopping, Nothing exciting. But we're looking forward to the day. It'll be all six of us for dinner, plus Michelle, and several of Eddie's family will probably join us in the evening. I've bought the very best Christmas crackers ever, but I can't reveal any details until after they've been enjoyed at dinner that day, lest any of the family read this before then. But these crackers will be a lot of fun!

We anticipate being here at the house until the beginning of February. Before then, we intend to plan some serious cruising for 2018. This year, we just about managed four weeks of it. Those of you who read the blog regularly will know why. Planning's something that Grace doesn't like to do, but we'll have some trips mapped out roughly before February, and then we can choose which to do, singly or severally, as the year progresses. We're hopeful! One thing that we have in mind is to re-do the rings we did on holidays years ago. Cheshire, Stourport, Four Counties, but this time taking them rather more slowly. (How good it is, not to have that deadline, that morning when you have to be back at the hire company's base!) We shall see.

Until we're back on Kantara, the blog will be probably be pretty much static, so Grace and I wish you all now a very Happy Christmas, and an equally pleasing 2018.

Righting a wrong

The thing is, we've never not done this. Winterising, that is. Hibernating the boat so that even the coldest, wettest, snowiest, windiest weather can't harm her during our absence. And the reason we've always done it before is because we've always set aside eight to ten weeks over winter when we'll be living in our house. Full winterising protects the boat, and we know it's going to work, because we've done the whole job.

But this year, we decided not to stay away from Kantara for so long. Rather, we'd bounce between boat and house as the fancy takes us, probably spending less total time away from the boat than we've done previously. But that's created a new problem.

Winterising is an easy, straightforward job for us. Apart from the bit involving the calorifier and its associated plumbing under the bed. Because of the structure of the bed, the layout of the pipes and the small size of the space to work in, draining water from the calorifier is a long job. Pipes have to be disconnected, and water drained by the jugful. Now, to do this once a year is fine, but to do it several times per winter is really unacceptable.

You're ahead of me now. Leaving that part of the job undone has made us anxious. We've visited Kantara three times since Christmas, two of them just to make sure our partly-done job hadn't frozen up; to reassure ourselves that the little heater we're running is sufficient for the low temperatures in Yelvertoft. We keep an eye on the BBC weather site, and it's been telling us that the coldest there has been -2°, much the same as St Albans. But when Naomi's max min thermometer in the garden yesterday morning read -6.7° - despite the Beeb's announcement of only -2° here and in Yelvertoft - we drove off quickly to check things out again. We do not want split pipes or popped joints, and gallons of water in the bilges!

Everything was fine, of course. What was it I said in a previous post? "The heater works, so we can trust it when we're not here, too." Will we ever learn?

While we were in the area, we went to The Wheatsheaf in Crick. We last went there four years ago, on Grace's August birthday, and we were very disappointed with the whole experience, and I said as much in the blog. But now, the pub's under new management, and it has improved beyond recognition. We had a really good Sunday Lunch. The food was delicious, and the service friendly and efficient. So, though I was not actually wrong back in 2012, it would be very wrong of me not to say now that The Wheatsheaf is highly recommended, and we'll be going back there from time to time in the coming years.

www.wheatsheafcrick.com

Wrong righted!