We set off late on Mon 27th Dec after dropping one cat off in untried cattery at Taplow. Linda did not think it was suitable for poor old Sally the Siamese, so she bought her back and Linda's old dear got lumbered with her. That was a good start to the holiday!

We finally shoved off at 11.00 and proceeded to Bulls Bridge in Hayes (Junction with the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union), where we were going to spend the night by Tesco's and do some shopping. As it was cold we had the Mikuni diesel fired boiler on, I noticed it was a bit smoky from the exhaust, but put it down to the diesel being cold. That night all was well until about 2.30am when we were all woken up by the boat and all of Bull's Bridge being shrouded in an awful fog of un burnt diesel vapour. We shut off the offending Mikuni which had NOT cut out and all froze, while nearly coughing to death!

Tue 28th Dec we got up fairly early and Neil started to dismember the Mikuni. It was hopelessly furred up with carbon. The heat exchanger was mostly cleaned out and it was tried out. All seemed well, so we started off at 12.45. We just got to Little Venice that night. All seemed well again. But at 2.00am Neil shut the dammed thing off again as the tell tail smell could be smelt. We had another frozen night. This was possibly the coldest night of this winter. 

Wed 29th Dec we gave up and started early (7.30) back for home. As soon as the engine was on the Travelpower was switched on and we warned up with the 3KW fan heater that Neil had fortunately left on board. Ice was soon encountered by Kensal Green Cemetery, but we smashed on. It was about 1cm thick in places. The ice continued until Bulls Bridge. We got back to Harefield Marina at 13.30 and quickly packed up. On leaving, having emptied the water tank Neil noticed that the ice had completely removed ALL the bitumen from the bow and most way down the sides. Another bloody boating job for the new Millennium!