We arrived last night at about 6 o’clock. It was very cold onboard. The heater had flattened the battery, as I had expected the frost stat had stuck again. We ran the engine, started the Eberspascher, lit the fire and had a warming beef stew that we had brought with us. The evening was spent in front of the fire watching “Atonement” on DVD. About nine o’clock I looked out and noticed that it had been snowing and everywhere was covered in about two inches.

This morning we decided to go to the Merry Hill shopping centre. I dont like shopping much, but we had Christmas stuff to get so we set off just after nine. It wasnt too bad, I expected it to be more crowded on a Saturday just before Chistmas. It got busier by midday so we left just before one.

Back at the boat I fitted the new thermostat for the heating and repositioned it. Previously it was just under the rear sliding hatch, probably the coldest place in the boat!

We ran the engine for another couple of hours, had lunch, drained all the water systems and left for home.