A frozen month

It's now a month since we left Debdale frozen in at Tixall Wide.  In the intervening time, plans were made for a rescue, but the weather didn't co-operate.  It seems there's now a widespread thaw, although the webcam at Great Haywood Marina still shows plenty of ice.  Of course the next problem will be that stoppages between Tixall and Autherley Junction mean that whoever rescues the boat will have to go the long way round, back through Birmingham.

Easy All on test

The January edition of Canal Boat is in the shops, and includes my review of Easy All, a 67footer by Heartwood.  David's photos of the exterior look particularly good this month; you'd never know that we spent the morning dodging showers, that it was really windy, and rather cold.

Christmas Cards

The internet connection where we were stuck at Tixall Wide was very good, so I took the opportunity to order some Christmas cards using some photos of Debdale in the snow.  I used Picnik to add text, then uploaded the photos to Moo.  The cards, which were ordered on Sunday arrived yesterday, and will be in the post this morning!

New gloves

When it comes to buying equipment, nothing beats a personal recommendation.  So we were all ears when Lesley from Caxton told us about her perfect boating gloves, as she helped us down the Farmer's Bridge Locks.  Gloves are difficult: woollen ones get wet, but waterproof ones often stick to your windlass, making it difficult to wind paddles up and down.  Lesley recommended Grippi Waterproof gloves, so while we were iced in at Tixall Wide we looked them up on the internet.  They were two pairs for the price of one at the time (not any more, apparently), and the two pairs could be different sizes.  They arrived yesterday.  Perhaps the eight inches of snow in the garden means that today is a good day to try them out.

Winter Cruise photos

I have uploaded a set of photos to Flickr from the winter cruise.  Looking at them, the change in the weather from dank and misty at the start of the trip, to clear blue skies, to snow and ice, is quite remarkable.

Winter Cruise - Day Ten

Not so much of a cruise, really; just winter.  Last night was no less cold than the previous one, so all the water we'd cleared had frozen over again.  Also, the forecast for the rest of the week was getting worse rather than better, so we came to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't be able to move at all, let along get back to Norbury Junction by Thursday evening.

So we started preparations to return home.  Adrian rang Norbury Wharf to find out what we'd have to do to winterise the boat, and then rang the next owners, due on board next weekend.  Then he phoned Great Haywood Marina to get the name of a local taxi firm, to take him to Norbury to pick up the car.

We both walked along to Haywood Junction to dump rubbish, and to meet the taxi.  We happened to bump into Sarah from Chertsey there, so while Adrian set off, I was able to go and have a look at Chertsey.

Then it was back to Debdale to pack, and drain down the water tank.  It took the best part of an hour and a half!

Tixall Wide isn't the easiest of places to get to, but once Adrian had returned, he found the way to Swivel Bridge, so at least we didn't have to carry all our stuff right the way back to the junction.  He'd also borrowed a hydrometer from Anglo-Welsh, and bought some anti-freeze.  Norbury had said they protect the boats up to -15 Celsius, but it would be a good idea to up the protection to -20C.  We checked the central heating system and the engine, and topped up the anti-freeze as necessary.  Once the water system was drained, we also disconnected the water pump, and tried to make sure there was no water left inside.

Then we took all our stuff to the car.  It took three trips along the snowy tow path.  When we were loaded up, we headed back to Great Haywood, went for lunch in a pub in the village, and headed for home.  Adrian said the Shroppie at Norbury Junction is frozen solid, and every canal we passed or crossed on the way home was frozen, even the K&A as it goes under the A34 near Newbury.  The temperature on the way home never got higher than 1.5C

It's not the way we envisioned the trip ending -- and it had been very enjoyable up until the weather intervened -- and we'll also have to sort out getting Debdale back to Norbury Wharf, once the ice has gone.

Winter Cruise - Day Nine

It was an exceptionally cold night.  The Met Office said it was -7 in these parts; I wouldn't be surprised if it was colder here on Tixall Wide.  By the morning, even though the fire stayed in (it's been alight constantly since we lit it on the first day), we had ice on the inside of the windows and the window frames.

We had a cooked breakfast, then at about 8.45am decided to see whether we could move.  It took about 20 minutes to move the boat at all.  We were frozen solid.  Once we were free, we tried to get back out to the channel cut by boats yesterday; even though it was frozen, the ice didn't look as thick.  However, getting there proved impossible, so after the best part of an hour we gave up and decided to walk to Great Haywood to get a paper.  The junction was frozen, but the moving water had kept the canal clear just below the lock.

Having been to the shop, we walked to the farm shop, but nothing caught our fancy (not at those prices, anyway).  We then carried on to the marina, where we knew Bruce and Sheila are moored on Sanity Again.  The office gave us directions to their pontoon, but they weren't at home.  We met them shortly afterwards, just outside the farm shop, and spent quite some time talking.  While we were there, a boat came down the Trent and Mersey from the north, but went straight past the junction.

This afternoon, we've made another couple of attempts to get away -- we'd like to be off the wide, as this seems to be where the ice is thickest and the weather the coldest.  But, although we got slightly further each time, the ice is just too think -- up to two inches in places.  So we've given up.  The sun appears to be having some effect on the ice, so we'll hope for a less cold night and a warmer day tomorrow.  We also live in hope that another boat will come by (Chertsey, are you stuck too?).  In the meantime, we have food, water, diesel, coal, internet, tv, and reading material.

0 miles, 0 locks.  (73 miles, 69 locks)

Winter Cruise - Day Eight

I looked out the window when I got up to go to the loo at 5am, to find it snowing, and the canal both frozen and covered in white.  By the time we got up properly, there was a good covering of snow everywhere.

We set off at 8.20am, and took quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing to get away from the mooring.  I swung the bridge, and Adrian made the left turn onto the Trent and Mersey -- not easy with the ice.  The noise going through the ice is incredible.

 People were just emerging from their boats, and the snow seemed to have made everyone cheerful.  The first two locks were for us (a first on this trip).

Above Shade House Lock was a magical scene of snowy trees and a frozen canal.

At Kings Bromley, we passed a small basin filled with former OwnerShips boats.  The other side of the bridge, at the Wharf, I'd been looking out for Chertsey.  Sarah was on board, and said they were busy trying to get the engine started.  I didn't dare stop for a longer chat, as getting going again through the ice is difficult.

We were breaking ice for the best part of three hours.  I'd been worried that the narrows at Armitage might have been well frozen, but in fact they were clear.  The whole way, the ice was very variable: at some points, the canal was clear; a few yards away, the ice could be nearly half an inch thick.  We finally met another boat coming the other way by the Ash Tree boat club.  They said they'd come from Great Haywood, so we knew things would be a lot easier for the rest of the day.

We stopped at Rugeley and went to the nearby Morrisons for shopping.  It was packed; the whole of the town appeared to have seen the snow and thought it necessary to stock up.  Then we had lunch, and set off again at 1.30pm.  Boats arrived at Rugeley while we were there, and we passed several more during the afternoon.  In fact, I think we've seen more moving boats today than any other day so far -- not difficult as some days we haven't seen any.

There was excitement at Colwich Lock.  I went to set the lock, and a group of walkers arrived at the lock.  A cow in the neighbouring field jumped over the stile onto the bridge, apparently wanting to say hello to all the people.  One of the walkers went to make sure it didn't get through the gate onto the towpath, and the cow headed back -- but rather than recrossing the stile, it went over the corner of the bridge parapet into a bit of scrub land, then into the canal.  Adrian wondered if the cow was going to land on the bow.  A couple of minutes later, the cow swam across the canal, got out, and was last seen heading off down the towpath followed by the farmer.

There was much more snow at Colwich Lock and northwards than we'd had at Fradley.  At Great Haywood, we should really have stopped below the lock where there were plenty of excellent moorings.  But we decided to carry on through the lock, onto to find no space at all.  It meant we had no choice but to turn onto the Staffs and Worcs, and head for Tixall Wide.

We've never seen the wide so deserted -- there appears to be just one other boat hear (apart for a sunken one).  Getting in to the side was quite tricky: we had to crash through the ice to get to the bank.  Whether we'll get out again in the morning remains to be seen.  It was 4pm by the time we moored up.

13 miles, 5 locks.  (73 miles, 69 locks)