stark reality

Cor blimey it's cold here! The coats are on and buttoned up and the gloves and scarves are shortly to follow. Winter has officially arrived!

Almost everyone we meet asks the same question of living on a boat ... 'Doesn't it get cold in winter?'. We are often heard to retort quickly, 'Not at all! We have central heating and a wood fire', which is true, and on a good day it's toasty and warm throughout the boat, but the reality is that for the last two weeks we've had to turn the central heating off as it has been so windy that the diesel fumes were blowing back into the boat through the chimney, and when we light the wood fire we stoke it with enough coal to last the night which means that we generate a heatwave in the boat (28˚C last night!) but by morning the coal has burnt out and it feels as though ice has settled on the floorboards. This morning our thermometer in the bathroom (which is closed off to the heating in the main part of the boat) read 7.6˚C.

Of course none of that bothers me now ... it couldn't be further from my mind. I'm sitting by the fire which is glowing with red hot coal and both Woz and I are in t-shirts and bare feet ... but then there is always the knowledge that tomorrow I'll be wearing thick socks, knee high uggs and a coat while eating my breakfast.

Ahh the price of adventure!