Weather, close up!

Returning to Kantara yesterday after a weekend at home sorting out various domestic matters, we found the marina yet again being buffeted by very strong, gusty winds.  The water looked like a sea, and the boat rocked more than we've previously experienced. I lit the oil stove, which was great, but it did mean having to go outside in torrential rain before going to bed after midnight, to take down the chimney, and the 3G antenna, too, for the sake of their safety!

I guess it's even more true for those who camp in tents, but being in a boat really makes us very much more aware of the weather, to an extent we do not have when we live in a house. Today's newspaper warns of colder weather on its way, with sub-zero temperatures before the clocks go back. This is most likely to occur further north than we are, but it is certainly something we have to be more wary of in Kantara than we would at home. The central heating system needs to have the right mix of anti-freeze in it, and there is always a danger of pipes freezing and splitting in the hardest frosts.  Before we finally leave Kantara and go home for the winter, we have to "winterise" her, which we will get done professionally for the first winter at least. This involves draining all water pipes and drains, and insulating things against severe chill.

So in winter, we will really know it's winter throughout the day, living in this strange steel cylinder home called Kantara.  And on sunny, crisp days like today, the same is true for me... we are far closer to the weather, somehow. And I love it!

Mind put at rest

The evening of the day Nome and Steve came, Kantara suddenly suffered a massive drop in her battery output'  Lights went very dim, the fridge turned off, and the water pump couldn't switch itself off.  I rushed to the electrics cupboard, and switched on the mains-powered battery charger, and all was well.  But the battery monitor was showing only eight volts just before I did that, and this had looked pretty serious to me.

The boat has two domestic electrical systems.  There is a 12 volt system powered by three big lead acid batteries which are trickle-charged by four sizeable solar panels.  This system powers most of the lighting, the CD player, TV, fridge, central heating pumps, shower pump and water pump.  And there is a 240 volt system for five lights, the microwave oven and grill, the washing machine, a battery charger, and a number of 13 amp sockets for computers, vacuum cleaner, bread-making machine and the like.  In the marina, we have a shoreline which plugs into a mains outlet just by our mooring, and supplies mains electricity to us.  Whilst cruising, the 240 volt devices are powered by an engine-driven generator (which has just broken down) or an inverter, which uses DC energy from the batteries and converts it to AC.  If our batteries fail on the cut, we are without electricity altogether.  We can still cruise, though, since the starter motor is powered by a totally independent battery.

Since the evening when the batteries slumped like that, I have been rather paranoid about them.  They are brand new, having been put in the boat just a few days before we sailed her away from the marina at which we bought her.  To cut a long story short, the various battery management and monitoring systems were giving me contradictory information about the state of charge of the batteries, and I was both confused and concerned.  Enter Simon, who had done some minor jobs on the boat before we bought her.  He came along today and checked the lot for us, answered my many questions, and put my mind at rest.  The batteries are not damaged.  I now understand the monitoring units, and can happily manage the power while we are cruising.  I have literally lost sleep over this, being very angry at my own ignorance, and concerned about the possible consequences of that ignorance.  Once again, I have learned something new about the boat, and am much better for it.

And the weather today - wonderful!  Blue, cloudless sky, warm and still.  It was a shame, yet again, that we could not get out on the canal, but it was fantastic just to be out in weather like that.

A day off the canal

Yesterday, after Kantara's engine had been serviced and reported healthy (apart from a very dirty alternator, which may have failed, or may just need a good clean), we decided that today we would take her out "for a spin", and enjoy a bit of cruising again.  However, we were awoken in the night by horrendous winds which had not abated by the time we got up this morning, and there was no chance of getting out without some unnecessary stress.  So we cancelled that plan, and took ourselves off to nearby National Trust property, Canons Ashby.  This is a beautiful Tudor manor, with grounds which must be wonderful in season, and a fascinating interior.  We are NT members, and have enjoyed many such days at their properties over the years, and this one did not let us down.  We will most definitely go back next year in the summer, and see it at its best.

Our first visitors

Finally, our kids' work schedules allowed Naomi and Steve to come up and see Kantara yesterday.  Jess was worse than peeved, though, because she could not swap shifts with anyone, and had to work, as did Eddie, Naomi's husband.  But it was great to see Nome and Steve, and to spend time on board with them.  Oddly, we didn't take Kantara out.  Our kids are very familiar with canals and boats, so there was not the novelty factor with them.  Instead, they must have discerned our need for a bit of exercise, and we went for a walk together.  The weather was OK, the view from the top of Cracks Hill was superb, and the walk did us good.  Thanks, both of you!

That said, we both woke up this morning feeling headachy - nothing to do with Nome and Steve, I hasten to say! - and have had to cancel the visit of my sister, Jill, and her husband, Rod.  Sorry guys - we'll do it another time.

Tomorrow, Sam is coming from Foxton Boat Services to service the engine.  It will be very good to have it thoroughly checked and serviced, and to know that we will then have a healthy engine on which we can start to do the routine maintenance with confidence.  I hope to learn a fair bit from Sam - all part of the pretty steep learning curve we are in at the moment!

We're not going anywhere today!

The marina has waves with frothy tips!  The wind is gusting violently, and boats around the pound are rocking against their moorings.  I dislike the sedentary habit, but we're going nowhere in the Kantara in this!  Perhaps I'll go out for a walk later.

The alarm clock went off at 6:30 this morning... cold memories of weekdays as a teacher... and my mobile rang 15 minutes later with a delivery driver saying he would be with us in half an hour to bring our sofa.  Sure enough, our sofa was delivered and squeezed in through the forward doors.  And it's lovely - so much better than the leather chairs, which were also lovely, but just not right for the space.

Space has been an issue three times today.  First the sofa.  Second...

We called in a boat fitter to look at the shower room/toilet, and he arrived today.  The shower room has a problem...

It has a lovely shower, perfectly good toilet (as far as boat loos go), but, the basin...  The basin has been fitted into the tiny space left between the shower and the outside wall - around 15".  And it's been set back about 6", too.  It's unusable.  I can't understand how the previous owners managed, how the first owner had it made that way.  Kantara was featured in the July 2000 edition of Waterways World magazine, when she was brand new.  The writer goes right through the boat, and sings its praises, but when he comes to the basin, he is more than a little surprised.

Now of course we knew about this when we bought Kantara, and we knew that we would have to do something about it, so along comes Roy, the boat fitter, to look at the problem with us.  And he came up with an excellent suggestion, and has gone away to draw up plans and a quote for us.  It's going to be usable!

Third space issue today...

Our conversation with Roy turned at one point to the washing machine, which sits in a wall cupboard opposite the basin.

What's the problem here?  Well, not that Roy can't do the job without obstructing access to the machine, but simply that, if ever we have to get rid of it and replace it, it simply cannot get out of any of the doors and hatches in the boat.  It can't even get out of the shower room door into the corridor outside.  The first owners of Kantara must have had her built around it!  How's that for forward thinking?  We hadn't spotted that before - but it wouldn't have stopped us buying Kantara if we had.

"Space, the final frontier!"

That wind is back!

The wind is back today, gustily rocking the boat, and rendering careful boat manoeuvres rather difficult, so we stay put, still waiting for the engine service engineer anyway.  The weather in the coming days looks as if it will not be as good as we have enjoyed, and the temperature in particular is due to drop nearly 50%.  That doesn't bother us, nor does a bit of rain, so after the engine has been serviced, and the sofa has been delivered... well, we shall see.  One of the beauties of this lifestyle is that we don't have to do any particular thing at any particular time - except change the cassette under the toilet!