Weird Weather

6 July 2018|BOATLIFE

It's been a while since I last blogged, in fact not since we were experiencing wierd and unexpected snow events . Apologies if you were keeping up, I had website issues and perhaps a little loss of confidence and and committment to what I was doing! Anyway, those blips and have been overcome and here we are again....only this time in the grip of the opposite end of the weather spectrum...HEATWAVE!!

One of the first and most common questions asked of boaters is "doesn't it get cold in Winter?" to which the answer is "Yes of course it does, even more so if it's a cold winter!" . But the coldness can be easily dealt with by sticking another log on the fire, adding an extra blanket, knit another jumper. 

Trying to create some shade.

What people rarely ask is "doesn't it get hot in Summer?" . And yes "IT DOES!!" . We are essentially living in a metal box....and that makes staying cool considerably harder.  All our windows and hatches are open to let the breeze work it way through (if there is one) and all the curtains are closed to keep out the Sun. But on the plus side we have ooodles of power to charge appliances and even run Henry the Hoover so have clean floors if nothing else :-)

Sun trying to sneek in.

One thing that doesn't change come snow or heatwave though is how much water we have, and I am as careful as ever about what I do with it. One of the things I like about living on a boat is how it keeps things a bit more real for me. I have a decent sized water tank, I think it holds about 400ltrs. Followers of my social media may remember the upheaval caused by this leaking. 400lts lasts us about 2 weeks, we can supplement that if we really needed to but that would require someone cycling to the nearest water point with containers (fyi water is heavy!!). To fill ourboat tank means a boat journey, a round trip lasting anything from 2-4 hours. So we have access to water for which I'm very grateful for but it requires effort, planning and time. 

So, if the next time you're watering the garden or filling the paddling pool for the kids and you find yourself wondering about where the water has come from, or will there be enough to last the Summer, that will be a little bit like being a boater. I may not be able to offer passers by glasses of water but I could charge their phones for them x