All quiet

There's not a lot to report today; the snow duly came and went (it's almost all gone as I write), but whilst it was here, it made being outside quite unpleasant.

Sheila continues to struggle with the horrible cold, so has stayed inside, snuggled up to her box of tissues.

In turn, that's meant that most of my time has been focussed on the routine jobs, repaying Sheila for all the work she did whilst I was hors de combat. We're still better off than our neighbour Bob on Lyra; his attack has turned to pleurisy and pneumonia, poor chap. We've offered to do anything we can to help, of course, but I guess it's mainly a case of hoping that the antibiotics do their job quickly.

Meanwhile, on a cheerier note, the new issue of Canal Boat is out, with a picture of Braidbar number 45, New Dawn, on the cover, as an illustration of the cruising guide to the Chesterfield Canal inside. There's also a piece about the increased dangers of the diesel bug, brought on by the change to ultra low sulphur fuel for inland boats, which often has several per cent of biodiesel mixed in.

I suspect there's a fair amount of scaremongering going on here, and I note that the piece is written by a guy whose company sells a biocide additive for diesel. Over on the canals list, several contributors have pointed out that they've been using similar fuel on the French waterways for years without any big problems.

Obviously, it's sensible to make sure that any water that collects at the bottom of the fuel tank or in the first fuel filter is removed, either by draining it, or sucking it out with an oil extractor, or by using one of the detergent type additives like FuelSet. In addition, if you're leaving the boat for months on end, fill the tank as full as possible to reduce condensation, and then, when you do go boating again, use up as much of that fuel as possible before refilling, so as to have plenty of fresh fuel in the tank.