Hiyo Silver

...and AWAY! This morning the ice was still half an inch thick under a layer  of rain water. I went to the village to get a paper and stuff, after which we were planned to assess the situation. As I came back I could see Sheila rigging Sanity Again for cruising, and hear a boat breaking ice from the Fradley direction.

In due course, a split new Graham Edgson boat appeared, on her way from Norton Canes to Willington where her owners were already living on a boat in Mercia Marina. It seemed a bit crazy to be breaking ice with such a boat (especially as Graham insists on two pack blacking his shells, apparently) but it was all to our benefit.

Once we'd helped them lock down, we carried on sorting ourselves out, and by the time we were ready to turn Bagnall Lock, so that we could drop down to the winding hole, another boat had appeared coming up.

Once he was clear, we set off. Winding took a bit of time, as the ice in the hole was still pretty solid, and there was much smashing with the cabin shafts, and hauling of the bow round with the mooring line. At last it was done, and we were able to set off for the trip back.

A fellow boater walking the towpath (Mrs Mercury, sorry, I've forgotten your name for the moment :( ) commented that it was like boating through smashed greenhouses, and that was a pretty fair description. By twenty to twelve, we were rising in Hunts Lock, and learnt from a moorer walking to her boat below the lock that whilst the visitor moorings were almost empty, there wasn't a lot of room at the top of the flight, above Shade House.

This made the where to stop decision easier, and at five past we had tied up. After lunch, we took a load of recycling round to the skips, and have been chilling out on board ever since. The ice is now in rapid retreat, but the forecast is for a lot of wind later this week, so we may well make a long day of it tomorrow and go all the way back to the marina.