All's snug on board

Another week spent on board to help keep things warm. In fact, at times, it got a little too hot - over 20 degrees, while outside the temperature barely reached zero.

The river was also very quite with hardly any boats moving about on the water. It meant  a few more mooring spots on the Ely waterfront than in previous visits.

I took the train to Cambridge one day and Kings Lynn another day and even registered at the Ely Library so I could use their computers to check emails and Ebay. What a fun time time I've had!

And just to add to the heady mixture of fun and frolics, one evening, I went to see The Imitation Game with Benedict Cucumberpatch (to clarify, he was in the film, not actually with me). 

What a fantastic film. Great acting by all concerned. Great production. Wonderful settings and of course an epic story that, if you didn't know better, you would think someone had just made up. At the end, the film got a ripple of applause - in my experience that's not happened since Sean Connery appeared as Richard the Lion Heart at the end of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. 

To be serious for a moment, apart from the obvious awesome story line, I suppose I should not have been surprised to learn how the strategic planners went about using some of the information gained and not others in order to trick the Germans into thinking their Enigma codes had not been broken. It must have been heartbreaking to make many of those decisions.

Now, back to things boating - Mick and I sorted out the Webasto heater. In fact there is a graphic instruction on the back of the guidance booklet but we both felt it only made sense once you'd worked out how to do it by trail and error. It turns out, if the thing fails to work after it's checked the battery and fuel supply, and that the air intake and exhaust are both free, you have to take out the main fuse for a few seconds to start the thing again, afresh. However, and this is vital, the system must be switched on before you do this otherwise this little trick just won't work. Once this was done, the boiler fired up and has worked perfectly since. I have found that the only thing that is most likely to trip the system is not having enough charge in the batteries early in the morning - usually the time when you want the central heating the most. For this reason, if I have not been anywhere to boost the batteries, I've found it's good to run the engine between say 5.00 and 8.00 pm. That usually does the trick.

Returned home this afternoon as the weather looks like it might warm up a bit this weekend. I can't justify spending all my time on board. On my way home, I found another floating fender in the river and picked up a straw bale for the two chickens who, incidentally, are still laying despite the cold weather.