We had an early night last night, I fell asleep in the chair in front of the fire at about half past eight and after waking a couple of times, we decided that it was time to turn in at around ten o’clock.

We both awoke at around four in the morning and realised that the canal had frozen over as we heard it crunching against the hull as we moved around on our way back and forward to the loo. The water was still covered in ice when I awoke at seven but the sun was shining bright and as a result the inside of the boat warmed up quite quickly, aided by the dying embers of the fire which had remained glowing all night and into the early hours of the morning.

Four boats passed by and broke the ice which by now was thinning rapidly in the early morning sunshine before we had a light breakfast and then set off on what would be our journey home. It only took a few minutes to reach the winding hole by bridge 111 next to the Bridge Inn and despite the ice we were turned around and facing east in no time at all.

Facing east meant facing into that bitterly cold wind that has been blowing for weeks now. We decided to make our way back to Braunston so it was just a case of grinning and bearing that icy wind from the east for a couple of hours. We made it back and reversed on to our pontoon before having the rest of the home made soup from yesterday. I’d like to say that it warmed us through but it went nowhere near to thawing us out at all. After lunch we cleared the boat, loaded the car and then drove home, glad that we had ventured out but glad to get back into the warmth of our house.