We left our lovely warm Victorian terraced house, half expecting to get stuck in a snow drift for three weeks, but in fact our trip to see friends last night in North Yorkshire went surprisingly well. From London to Richmond in Yorkshire in 3.5 hours, straight up the A1, little snow, more like a heavy frost and we arrived early enough to have a wander around Richmond, stop for a hot chocolate and a thick slab of cake, before hunting some very tasty pork pies.
This morning there was a light dusting of snow on the car, which was easily removed before we headed tenderly through the Yorkshire Dales. The roads got progressively worse until we reached Cumbria, where the nicely gritted black road of North Yorkshire came to an abrupt stop to be replaced by a solid white road disappearing into the murk over the moors. We kept going in 2nd gear at about 10 mph until a few miles later the road cleared and we were able to get onto the M6 and get some speed up again.
We arrived on a snow covered Pixie around 14:30, we stepped gingerly aboard being careful not to slip on the few inches of snow that was on deck and in the cockpit. First problem was that the shore power had tripped off, and the Ultrasonic Antifoul had run down the batteries to nothing. A problem with the Ultrasonic Antifoul which has now been sorted on new models, but not on the older version that we have.
I flicked the circuit breaker and Pixie stirred into life. Before we unloaded the car I set about brushing the snow off the deck, I did the side deck and the cockpit and then hit the sprayhood with the deck brush to shake the snow off. Unfortunately the deck brush went straight through the clear (ish) plastic windows, splitting one with ease. Great! Within 30 mins of being on Pixe she's already started costing me money! I went up to Saturn Sails and they said I could bring in the spray hood in and they would see what they could do. I took off the spray hood and took it in, they are going to replace both windows at £40 +vat each. They hope to have them finished by tomorrow afternoon. Good service.
Down below everything seemed fine, a few bottles of oil had frozen. Here's the Olive Oil
Everything else seems surprisingly unscathed, the beeb was forecasting temperatures of -12ºc in Glasgow while we were in the south, I was half expecting to see a solid block of ice on the saloon floor when I pushed back the companionway hatch.
So what's it like on a boat at this time of year? Well we have the dehumidifier which is pumping out a bit of heat, as well as the Webasto diesel heating. Even the oil lamp throws out a bit of heat, so it's really cosy in the saloon. Kirsty has just cooked a fine sausage and mash, a bottle of wine is going slowly, and the radio is keeping us company.
The other good thing about boating at this time of year, finding a space in the car park isn't a problem, as our car is the only car in the berth holders car park, and there aren't many other boats with signs of life. May be they know something we don't, but we're just enjoying being on Pixie. There is more room at home, and the cats are probably enjoying themselves without us, but we're enjoying ourself up here.
