080728 - Ego - Cold & Wet - Painted Skies

Well thank you Ego for that critics review - it's nice to know our efforts are appreciated. And as for both being crazy - well I say it's her - and she says it's me - and it's a close call as to who'll be in the Funny Farm first - but you'd better make a double booking.

Well I don't know what it's like at your place - but right here at the moment - it's f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g cold wind - and raining steadily - and you'd be mad to be outside - here's the scene upstairs.

And the pictures don't do it justice - because there's an icy 25 knot wind blowing too.

I just went upstairs and to the back deck, to put some petrol in the little generator - with a big golf umbrella over me and it just about blew away. And I see that Laurie is not home, across at his yacht - so I don't envy him one little bit - the horrible trip he's going to have - in this weather, coming back out in that little dinghy. It really is cold out there - and in here too.

This was the scene in the cockpit upstairs.

Well I'll give you one guess.

Yeh - well I was putting off starting it - until we all 'froze solid' - because she's had it on just about everyday - and for a few days this week it's been on ALL day - it's been so cold out - and it's feeling pretty light, so I'd say there's a good chance it may run out of gas in the next couple of hours - we'll just see. With the couple of full days and every evening - it's probably been going for more than 40 hours on that 4.5 Kg bottle of gas - which costs about $10 to fill.

Despite the fact that we've got 3 other gas bottles on board (all with gas in them) - this one has a different fitting - and while I've got an adaptor so IT can be used elsewhere - there's no adaptors for the other POL fitting bottles to take the 3/8 LH thread on her HEATER.

So if it goes out - she's not going to be very impressed - and I think we'll just go to bed. And I'll make sure I get another fitting - when I next go ashore - probably tomorrow.

And just so that you don't think I'm torturing the little iceblock.

I DID turn the heater on.

This photo was taken only a few moments ago.

We're definitely in for the night - that's for sure - and I'll be sitting in front of that heater myself a bit later - and I've been going to it, to warm up my frozen hands - regularly.

But unfortunately - come tomorrow - let's hope it's a bit better - because we're on the last few litres of petrol - and as I told you the medium LPG heater bottle is just about done too - so whatever tomorrow brings - rain, hail or 'freezing blizzard'- it looks like a trip ashore - before the day is out. Or I'll never hear the end of it from Penny - if tomorrow night there's no lights and no heater either.

(At least the fridge is not working very hard - and there's no need to put the butter away)

The cloudy and wet weather has been interspersed with the occasional bit of blue sky and we've even had some pretty good sunrise and sunset shots this past week.

Once again I've been experimenting

and doing some digital 'painting' with a few of them - so here's the latest efforts.