A Woolly Jumper Weekend

It has certainly been a woolly jumper weekend. Very bracing at times and bitterly cold even by day. On saturday we were battered by the northerly wind and then yesterday just never got vaguely warm.

Despite the weather we had a great weekend. Saturday was a lazy start with eggs benedict for breakfast, before heading across to the fuel berth to fill the diesel tank. 158 litres later and a gas bottle exchange for good measure and we were ready to head down river to Saxilby. No great journey at only 4 miles from our home berth but a good destination for our bonfire evening.

Sunday was another lazy day. Neither of us could be bothered to get up with the rain beating on the canopies, so we rolled over and had another hour in bed. Eventually getting up at about 10am, late for us, we enjoyed a breakfast of duck egg and soldiers before scurrying back to the marina to get tucked up with a couple of beers watching Stephen King's IT, before heading across to Harbour Lights for sunday dinner, which was delicious. We will certainly be going back again for food.

Bonfires

We had a little outing to Saxilby last night where we had a small bonfire and enjoyed a group effort meal of jacket potatoes, chicken curry, chilli, rice and hot dogs followed by some cake.

Fireworks

We had a quiet Friday night in the marina last night.  We watched the fireworks from the David Lloyd's display from the back of the boat before heading across to Harbour Lights for a few drinks.

Today we need to go and get some diesel before heading out onto the river for the weekend.

Weather Watching

During the winter months we install tube heaters in the engine bay of Naughty-Cal to keep the frost at bay and protect the vulnerable raw water cooling elements of the engines coiling system. The closed circuit is obviously protected by anti freeze but the raw, or river water, coolers are unprotected.

But how do we know that they are working? Well ordinarily without lifting the engine hatch you wouldn't know. So to prevent having to do this a couple of times a weekend, years ago we bought a weather station with a remote sensor which we fitted in the engine bay. This recorded the temperature and humidity in the engine bay and also in the cabin where the main unit lives. 

Our current weather station is some 6 years old now and was occasionally losing signal from the remote sensor so we have decided that it is about time we buy another one. So yesterday I ordered a new one from Ebay for the princely sum of £16. It won't be delivered until the middle of next week but we plan to put the engine bay heater in place this weekend anyway as the evenings have started to get a bit on the chilly side.

Egging them On

For many years one of our favourite moorings has been the pontoon on the Witham at Fiskerton Fen, and whenever we visit we always make a point of walking to Ferry Hill Farm adjacent the nature reserve to buy some of their very tasty free range duck and chicken eggs.

The farm was taken over about 18 months ago but the new owners still carry on the egg and preserve business as well as the small camp site adjacent the farm.

While out and about on a little drive on Sunday afternoon we decided to call in an buy some more eggs and bumped into the new owners who told us all about their new plan. One of the barns is currently being fitted out as a micro brewery. They already brew on a small scale but their ale was proving so popular that they have decided to upsize. They are, or were, just a couple of weeks away from the kit being fully installed and functional. 

So watch this space for more updates.

A Belated Shower

We decided yesterday that it was definitely about time that we got the Sierra out of the garage again and gave her a well earned scrub down and rinse off.

She had rather rudely been stuffed into the garage on the day we got back from Cornwall and has been sulking in there, covered in sand and salt ever since, nearly a month ago!

So we fired her up and on the way to work gave her a good thorough jet wash and soak to wash away the dirt and grime, making sure that the underneath was also pressure washed to wash away any sand or salt clinging to the floor pans. 

It will probably be a quiet time for the Sierra now, she will only come out in nice weather. It was a bit cold for bringing her out today, I had to scrape ice from the windscreen of the Nissan!

Lincoln by Day

There is usually something interesting to look at in Lincoln at the weekend and this weekend it was a selection of vehicles from the Lincoln Transport Museum that were taking pride of place in the city centre.