Icy boating

16th & 17th December

It was another icy morning but it wasn't as thick as on Saturday, and there was no frost. Nonetheless, there was no point in moving, as we wouldn't make it to Bugsworth in time for our 12.30 lunch date, and there was nowhere more convenient than High Lane to collect us.

I went up to the shop for bread and a paper, and at 12.25 or so we were collected by Peter and Jan from outside the Con Club on the A6. There was a remarkable amount of road traffic about for a Sunday, which had delayed them getting through from Stockport. Christmas shoppers, maybe.

It was well worth it though – we had an excellent lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, in a strangely quiet restaurant considering how close to Christmas it is getting.

Afterwards we walked down to the information point, where we found two hardy members of the IWPS toughing it out in the hut, with the door firmly closed against the biting wind whistling across the basin.

Then it was back to the boat for a cup of tea. After Peter and Jan had gone we had a quiet afternoon and evening. It felt quite cold, and we were grateful for the Squirrel blazing away. The air temperature outside was probably no lower than earlier in the week, but the wind was whistling around still, enough to move Sanity on her moorings.

It continued to feel cold overnight, and things were enlivened by the odd crashing noise through the hull. After some panicky thought I realised that sheets of ice must be forming further up the cut and being blown down onto Sanity. In the morning it was apparent that this was so – there were clear stretches of water visible in the cutting, and a thicker section of ice outside us and in the winding hole. Elsewhere the ice was no thicker than the day before.

As we were breakfasting, Enver came down from Poynton and winded opposite the arm into the North Cheshire Cruising Club moorings. It was hard work for him, as the ice resisted the lateral turning motion of the boat, and he had to go to and fro many times before he got round.

The weather was now quite still, and felt a little warmer than before. I went into the village to post the family Christmas cards, and to collect a prescription – High Lane has a combined Post Office and pharmacy, both very efficient. By the time I came back, the ice was looking very wet on top, and it seemed to us that by waiting another hour or so, we should be able to move off.

Accordingly, I did some emails, including one to a boat electrics expert of our acquaintance, asking for his help with our charging problem. Then we had a cup of coffee and set off at around eleven o'clock.

In places the ice was rather thicker than I'd hoped (comment by Sheila: "Typical") but it was possible to keep going, although steering presented a greater challenge than usual, especially on bends which had filled up with ice.

The main challenge came just as we approached Marple, past the Waterside Moorings. A huge cupressus tree trunk had been pushed into the cut, and was now embedded in the ice, and partly stuck on the bottom. It took Sheila several runs at it to get the right line between it and the moored boats. This wasn't helped by the fact that two of these boats were GRP cruisers. It's always a nervous business passing these in ice, especially when they haven't got protective boards down – hard ice can slice through the plastic with disastrous consequences.

Eventually we made it to the moorings in Marple, and found that there was a space opposite the water point. It then took another ten minutes of work to bring Sanity into the side, as the basin was full of quite thick ice still, which piled up between the boat and the bank. Whilst one of us swung on the centre line, the other went up and down the boat with the long shaft, smashing the ice sheets and pushing them out from between the side and the towpath.

At last it was done, and by 12.30 we were able to get lunch, including hot mugs of soup. Winter boating has its consolations. The blacking had in fact stood up to the ice remarkably well, partly because Comastic is good stuff, and partly because although the ice was thick in places, it wasn't more than only just frozen –it's the really cold ice that is extremely hard.

Since the forecast is set to be a little warmer again tomorrow and Wednesday, we decided to stay put for tonight and use the service block facilities tomorrow. The afternoon was therefore used to shop, especially for Sheila to get some more wool to finish the jacket she's currently making for Daniel.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the local autospares shop, hilariously called Harrods, and bought the oil ready for the next change – they do a good deal on AC Delco oil at Harrods.