Another Day in the Arctic.

Ice bound in Hillmorton.

Well last night wasn’t quite as cold as the night before but only by about 1⁰C. Normally our central heating unit shuts down at 11pm and comes on again at 8am  but it’s been working overtime again starting up 3 or 4 times during the night every night for the last 4 nights.

Because of this I took the 2 x 20 litre jerry cans down to Canalbreaks for another refill of diesel. This should keep us going until the middle of next week when I will pay them another visit, because I cannot see anything moving on the canal for at least another 10 – 14 days unless we have an unseasonal heat wave. Well, dreams are free.

We have had another visit from some local youths who thought they were bullet proof by having a game of soccer on the ice. Derek on Uccello pointed out the error of their ways and told them that if the ice broke and they fell in, by the time the emergency services arrived they would be dead. With this in mind they departed. I know that the ice is between 2 and 3 inches thick in places but this is not uniform right across the canal and there could be weak spots unable to take much weight.

This afternoon Derek and I decided to work off some excess calories by collecting some water from the water point which is about 500 yards away. He did 3 and I did 4 trips which gave both of us about 70 litres each. Enough to keep us going for a few days. While we were busy doing this Carrie was busy baking and made us some glorious cinnamon bread and boy is it yum.  Aren’t we spoilt? Oh, the joys of Winter Continuous Cruising.