Well and truly frozen in

We are living on our boat moored in a marina on the Trent. All the boats are now well and truly frozen in, including the water supply, writes Robert Aspey.

We are having to fill up collapsible water bottles to transport water to the boat, and manœuvre heavy gas bottles over slippery pontoons and boat decks.

This is the first real hard winter since the 1980's. We, like many other liveaboards, moved onto our boat during the period of milder winters between 1989 and 2008.

If this is the start of a return to the type of winters we had in the past, I wonder if this will have an effect on the number of people who remain living on their boats?

Back in the late 1980's we were all told that a hole in the ozone layer (caused by the release of CFC's in aerosols) was going to cause the climate to warm up, which it duly did. They banned CFC's and the hole in the ozone layer has now almost closed up, whether this happened naturally or was due to the ban on CFC's I don't know.

Now we are being told that human generated carbon emissions are causing the planet to warm up, however the last winter and this one in particular have been the coldest for over 20 years, so I'm a bit confused. I'm all for cleaning up the planet, re-cycling, and using renewable energy (we have two PV panels on our boat roof), but I think the jury is still out on whether we have any real effect on the climate.

It would be interesting to hear how other liveaboards are coping, and any views on 'global warming'.

Robert Aspey, RBOA Upper Trent Rep. Duck Rustler