Hot Weather and family visiting

• Family
• Weather

Hot Weather

Those of you that have followed our blog from the beginning may remember me discussing the subject of hot and cold weather on a narrowboat. It is much easier to keep a boat warm in the winter than keep it cool in hot, summer weather. Hence the compromise we made on roof colour – light grey (I wanted white) with the rest of the boat being a darkish blue. The recent heat wave that we have been experiencing, since our return from visiting our family in the USA, has rather made the point. On Saturday, I measured the temperature of the blue area on the roof at around 2.30pm. (I happen to have a thermocouple – don’t ask). It went up to 72°C  (that’s almost 162°F). The light grey area was around 5° cooler. Not a huge amount, but it all helps.  Once on the move, even at only the 3 mph we travel at, it rapidly drops thanks to the flow of air over the boat. The same thing happens below the water line, where the skin tanks that keep the engine temperature down, work best while we are moving.  The inside of the boat settled at around 31°C with all the portholes, side-hatches and Dog Box (roof light) open.  So, sleeping outside the covers it is then.

Family visits

As I mentioned, and for those of you who don’t use Facebook, we have just returned from a month long visit to Nick, Jude, Alex and James in the USA.  It was great to be there when James finally learnt to move forwards when crawling, instead of just staying put, and also learnt to pull himself up to stand.  Walking will be soon, and being able to move around has really brought out his inquisitiveness.  Big brother Alex has a table that is a convenient height for his Lego, which he spends a lot of time playing with. It turns out it is also the right height for James to pull himself up on – and of course reach all the Lego pieces.

Alex and James School Photo (click on the image for a bigger version)

The boy’s cousins, Ethan, Luke and Simon, live only a couple of houses away, although there is a direct path between the two houses through a field at the back. Another family with two similarly aged children (another Ethan and Lucas) live between and they all play together a lot.  While there, we thoroughly enjoyed a couple of outdoor marshmallow roasts:

Marshmallows

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