I think this week’s weather has been about as perfect as it can get. Each morning I have woken up to a hard frost, with ice coating the roof of the boat. The sunrises have been stunning, with the light glittering across the fields and the water. During the day the sun has warmed us to T Shirt temperatures, and then in the evening as the light fades, it has got cold again, very quickly, with amazing skies full of stars and planets.
We have been able to heat the boat with our bubble stove (a diesel stove rather like a wood burner) or with our Webasto diesel boiler. The Webasto was 14 years old and beginning to fail, so we had that replaced this week with a brand new one with a three year warranty. It was expensive (BOAT stands for “bung on another thousand”) but will keep our central heating and water hot for years to come.
The air space in a narrowboat is really small and so heats up quickly, despite the single glazing, single skinned walls, and drafts. We have spent many happy hours this week feeling toasty warm in the boat, while the world outside freezes.
Most of this week we have been moored back in our marina, where we have access to a car and so have been able to get things done, but tomorrow we are back on our Spring journeys, heading north through the industrial centre of Stoke on Trent. I am looking forward to seeing the old kilns and factories, as well as the beautiful Staffordshire Countryside.
I hope it is sunny and cold.
Pete's Blog 
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