Well, here we are with a branny new blog spot – never thought I would see the day, but after all the prodding I have given in. Can’t say how regular it will be, as internet access is a bit on the iffy side. We can get wi-fi on the mooring, but only if I sit in the outside office, and that has been most chilly lately with temperatures below zero and rather windy too. It is not possible to type with gloves on – how Jerome managed to type with his huge furry paws has always been a mystery to me.
It is just after 6 am, and I have crept out of bed leaving Dave dreaming of sunny places, made a cuppa, cajoled Henry the heater into life – there is a real gale blowing at present, 30 – 40 knots, and rain so he is a bit reluctant to get going. But he is now well behaved and life is pretty good. We are sitting pretty comfortably on the mooring, the occasional lurch, but given what it is like outside, can’t complain at all. I plan to write downstairs and cut and paste when I brave the elements to get the weather maps.
We have had he snow which was lovely to look at but chilly. Henry worked amazingly well and kept us very toasty until the day when enough was enough for him and he gave up in a force 9 – very very windy to you landlubbers. We resorted to using the cooker for a while, so life was still OK. Then we realised that the cooker was going very slowly indeed, not enough to boil the kettle before bed time. Thought light bulb – it was 8 below zero and we were using the wrong kind of gas. Purchas of 2 new cylinders of the right gas for cold weather and were eating again. The windy weather has meant we have not been able to get the boat alongside for a while, although we braved things a bit the other day as we were very short of water and it is not really possible to bring enough over in the dinghy – even if it is possible to get into the dinghy. Poor Dave found the water hoses on the pontoon were all frozen up and had to jerry can water down from the top of the pontoon while I scampered to the shops to make sure we were stocked up for the next few days. As soon as we had sufficient water we were off again thinking the worst was on its way only to find that things settled down for a couple of hours. Sod’s law is alive and well.
We are looking forward to setting off in the very near future – have a few little things to do, but nothing major. And the final beaurocracy – a total nightmare. I had no idea 2 simple folk could be involved with so much government paperwork. It’s driving me scatty. Funny how man jobs need to be done when the paperwork comes out!
The new radios appear to be doing what is expected of them, but won’t be sure till we set off as the long range e-mail etc can’t be tried out until we register and once you register you have to pay and we don’t want to pay before we have to. Help is at the end of the phone though from the chap who sold it to us. Must admit he has the patience of a saint as we have had to contact him a couple of times as we are not the most computer literate of folk.
We have quite recovered from the journey down south and have the most wonderful memories of you all. It was just so good to be able to touch base with everyone – even had Kate on the phone to join in, we missed her very much. Alex stole the show of course, he is such a charmer, he is going to get away with murder. Won’t be long and it will be baby on the move, so hard to realise he is the grown up version of the minute scrap of humanity in March. He is now growing into the 9 – 12 month sizes. I think Rachel had better put a brick on his head, can’t keep up with the knitting. Such a happy chap, biggest smile in the world – tells you what a super Mum and Dad he has.
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