Bloody Hell it’s cold! We made it to Trent Lock before we both seized up. It has been a lovely, bright, crisp winter’s day but absolutely freezing. The wind is biting and on the water it seems to be 10 degrees colder than if you go for a walk. Today’s first problem was untying the boat as the ropes, being wet from the day before, had frozen solid. Much wiggling and swearing got them undone in the end. The next thing was bending the frozen rope round the bollard in Kegworth Deep Lock when we were going down, that was fun!
As it is winter the shallow flood locks at Kegworth and Redhill needed operating, although the level either side of both of them was only a few inches different. Having to do extra locks adds to the time factor and the coldness of my hands! By the time we got to Trent Lock we had had enough especially as the wind on the open Trent seemed exceptionally cold when we turned the corner!
There was only one other boat on the pontoon so we had no trouble mooring up. However, we did encounter a slight problem, when we tried the water point ……… we found it was frozen up! Luckily we did fill up yesterday at Loughborough so we have plenty of water at the moment. Even so we are now on water conservancy measures in case the next tap, at Cranfleet, is frozen up as well! This could be an on going problem all winter I suppose! We have 2 20 litre containers which we will fill at the next opportunity as a stand by for drinking etc.
What of our usual foray into the nearest pub I hear you cry? Well, we did go to the Navigation Inn. As it happens the moorings are at the bottom of their garden practically, so it seemed to be the thing to do. We gave their baguettes a swerve this time though! George was disappointed not to be included in this trip but after our visit there in the summer we knew it to be a bit of a doggy heaven and had to leave old grumpy guts at home. We did try to get him to go for a walk first but as we had already passed the pub and he remembered where it was from his earlier visit this proved to be impossible! Having dragged him a few hundred yards up the Erewash we decided not to bother with the walk! After we came out of the pub we walked into the village to get shopping so we could genuinely tell him we had been to the shops!
This weather is lovely to look at but hell to boat in, hope it warms up a bit soon!
