At last some calm

I was woken by the wind at 2:30am on Monday morning, and it took until late morning today (Tuesday) for the wind to calm down. Now it is calm (but raining), so we have both had an afternoon nap.

We did manage one job today, which was to finish insulating the area behind the Refleks Diesel stove. We used a different sealant (waterproof and flexible) which has done a good job (it is Ivory because that was significantly cheaper than white, and it is going to be painted anyway). Unfortunately, we used all we had of it (more coming tomorrow) so haven't done under the deck yet.

Yesterday and today we have cooked our dinner on the Refleks stove because we had it on any way to stay warm. That, and all the other changes (more solar, more things switched from 240V Ac to 12V DC), mean that we have been able to dramatically reduce our use of boatyard electricity, even with the bad weather.

My current estimate is that we are burning about 1 litre of diesel every 10 hours, with an outside temperature below 10 degrees we can be comfortable at 20 degrees in the main saloon. There isn't, yet, much variation possible in the heat output. More work on the regulator adjustment is needed. As we add more insulation and more parts to the wheelhouse enclosure, I am confident that we will be able to stay warm through the winter. Also, the safety valve for the central heating arrived today so we can start adding the little radiators to our cabin (and the heated towel rail in the en-suite).