Single handing in frosty conditions

20th & 21st January

The night before last was distinctly colder than previous ones, a sign of the short cold snap in prospect. It was downright chilly in the bedroom first thing, so I gave the Eberspacher a longer run than usual, then got up and had a shower.

Feeling more warmed up, I popped into the village after breakfast, then came back to the boat, started up and worked up Penkridge Lock to the water point. Having watered, started the washing machine and winded in the winding hole just beyond, I dropped back down the lock. No one had come past whilst I was doing this, so it was especially gratifying to have Jacana turn up below just as I was finishing, so that I didn't have to worry about closing the bottom gates.

I'd decided to go a bit further down towards Longford Lock before mooring again, but had a bit of bother getting right into the side. I had to back up a bit and in the end settled for being a touch out from the towpath. All this because I didn't want the same folks to get the benefit of the late afternoon engine run, but then in fact decided to try and do without it.

The batteries have been on a good voltage first thing in the morning recently, so I thought I'd see if it was an effect of the reduced demand of only having one on board.

I spent a bit of time sorting the labelling on the blog posts after lunch; about a year ago, I took to using the location as the label, as folks will know, but that means there's a great chunk of them from the first year unlabelled. I've done a few, but it's going to take a while, it not being the most thrilling way if passing my time, and of course it's only really practicable when on a fast connection, or else I spend most of the time waiting for pages to load.

When I'd done as much as I could bear, I went back into the village, taking a load of secondhand books with me for the local hospice shop, and paying a visit to the butchers. His meat looks OK, but I've not had a chance to cook any of it yet.

In addition, I had one of those irritating exchanges with him, as I thought he'd not given me the right change. I should probably have pushed it harder, but he seemed quite sure, and it was only when I got back to the boat and worked it out again I realised I was definitely short.

Last night was colder again, enough to spoil my sleep, lacking my full sized hot water bottle as I am at the moment. That's partners for you; when they are around, they keep you awake snoring, but then when they're not, you freeze in bed.

It's a metttyfor or sumpin, boss.

Checking the batteries this morning showed that I should have run the engine again, as the voltage was well down. It being very cold, I still ran the Eberspacher, but turned the fridge freezer off whilst I did so, to avoid two big drains on the bank at once.

It was really frosty outside, with just a smidgen of ice drifting by on the cut, but a lot on the roof of the boat. I think that there had been a light rain shower last thing, which had then frozen. Certainly the pavements were quite treacherous as I walked into the village, and the roof looked downright dodgy.

This makes for problems single handing, of course, as walking on an icy roof at a quiet lock on your own is not a good idea. On the other hand, the forecast for tomorrow (ie Thursday) and the rest of the week is really nasty, with lots of wind, another no-no for single handers.

I set off gingerly, and boated down to Longford Lock. At least that meant I was out of the shade of the houses opposite, so that the sun had a chance to melt the frost. I filled the lock, and boated into it, taking a centre line ashore with me when I got there. After emptying the lock, I used the line to pull Sanity out, rather than climbing down the ladder onto the roof of the boat.

The whole thing just needed a lot of care; the locksides were greasy with frost, and there were plenty of opportunities for prat falls. I decided that as the top gate wasn't leaking, I would use the single handers' privilege and not close the bottom gates. No sooner had I decided this, than a boat appeared coming up the cut.

I boated past him, shouting cheerfully "Left it open for you!"

By lunchtime I was back at Radford Bank, having negotiated Park Gate, Shutt Hill and Deptmore Locks without too much grief. I crossed with another boat at Deptmore, which was nice, it being a very deep lock, so good to have a bit of help with it.

Lunch over, I set off again in deteriorating conditions. Up until now the weather had been very good, apart from the frost problem, but now it clouded over and a bit of wind got up. At least the locksides were now dry, so Tixall presented no trouble. As I came out, some people looking round the cottage offered to close up for me, which was kind of them and a big help.

Mooring on the Wide proved a bit tricky, as the wind was now strong enough to affect the boat, and was blowing off the towpath. I though I was going to end up doing one of those comic running from bow to stern and back trying to get them to stay against the bank long enough to tie, but some judicious use of the lines eventually allowed me to get it sorted.

(If necessary, I would have used a piling hook on the centreline to hold the boat about where I wanted it.)

I've had a quiet afternoon since, watching Dr Jones on DVD and showering. I seem to have taken up my usual 800 words and then some with cruising stuff, so what we did right with Sanity will have to wait – I'm going nowhere for at least two days, so Friday's post can be filled with that stuff.