I’ve done nothing. This could be a challenging 800 words; you may as well stop reading now. What have I done on the boat in the last few months?? Hmm... Diddly squat. Actually, I ripped the entire shower out, but more of that later.

Years ago, racing very old wooden often leaky old dinghies, one would get quite excited by the end of February and start applying liberal amounts of glue, glass fibre and paint; all of which failed by end of June being a total waste of time, effort and money and leading to even more leaks, so you learn the hard way. Glass fibre needs 24 hrs above 10 degrees c to set properly, as well as what ever it’s being applied to needs to be dry, which with theamount of condensation about, just isn’t happening. Paint especially modern stuff, which is water based is exactly the same, in fact I will save you reading a list: just apply the above to any product we may use to “tart the old tub up “and none of them will work until April (later if this weather doesn’t stop freezing).

The boat is actually a mess, all the floor tiles are up and stacked against the bulkhead because condensation just forms under them and they freeze and never dry out. All the locker tops are off for exactly the same reason but with added mushroom growth if there is no air. There’s no water connected because it would just freeze the pump, pipes etc., causing bigger issues. Gas is off at the bottle. One concession I did make today was to remove the bubble pack from the windows and open them and the vents all afternoon: a good breeze can dry out better than any heater. As for the outboard – it’s still there! I haven’t even looked at it let alone try and start it recently. The very last thing I want on a water-cooled engine is water inside when temperatures get down to below minus five. The battery is at home in the warm and dry rather than freezing. Even with solar it’s getting very little if any charge and apart from that cold batteries don’t charge anywhere near as well as they do when warmer. I did repair a zip in the canopy after a storm, it was like trying to sew concrete the vinyl was so hard and stiff. However, another few weeks and it will all be fine again. I also can’t move in the cockpit because the canopy is strapped down at every location with “bolt rope” as the weather goes from freezing to hurricane in a matter of hours.

The shower! Twice I have put a new tray in and twice it’s cracked – because it has the thickness of a margarine tub. Also the floor isn’t level so it has to be built up about 9 inches and the whole thing unless built as a wet room, leaks into the void below growing better fungi than the lockers. So before what seems to have been a mini ice age I ripped it all out with the idea of new tray, may be even a decent shower screen - you know, the kind of thing like you have at home. Then I gave up because I saw that originally the shower was built into the boat, the drain went through and into the bilge plates collecting not at the back but in a large trough under the floor. I throw this in because that seemed to be the 1970s way of doing It and not just on Dawncraft! In the bow section there was even the remains of a pump - the whole lot exiting through the sink waste. However, someone had filled it all with expanding foam and although I did try and gently remove it using bent wire in a drill (sort of egg whisk thing) caution got the better of me, seeing as we are below the water line! So, what have I done instead – I come from old school where boat buckets served so many purposes!! My shower is a bucket, well actually it’s a large blue tub because a bucket isn’t big enough and it works a treat! I got the idea from some swanky B and B made of a corrugated iron shed on wheels! (shepherds hut). It’s cheap, it’s simple, can be lifted out easily withoutaffecting its function. Just add soap and hot water and gently agitate.

Last bit is a word of warning. If, like me, you have done diddly squat, do not start that outboard on last season’s fuel – it will be stale, full of water at bottom of the tank and liable to block your carburettor by the time you have done less than a mile. Ditch it and start afresh, there are recycling centres that will take it in an approved container.

It won’t be long. Spring must arrive.