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A frosty start

We had deliberately loaded the fire lightly last night so that it would have gone out by morning in order that we could give it a good clean out before relighting it. The cabin was cool when we we awoke so I switched the heating on as I lit the gas under the kettle for our first coffee of the day. A quick peek out of the window revealed a hard frost and a frozen canal. When questioned by Sue a couple of days ago about whether or not the canal might freeze, I confidently stated that at minus one, it would remain ice free. I mentioned the frost but neglected to mention the ice on the cut, hoping that by the time we were up and about, the sunshine might have worked its magic and melted it. A short while later with the cabin warming up and the coffee going down nicely, Sue’s ears pricked up and asked if I could hear a crackling noise. I couldn’t but her hearing is better than mine so I guessed what it would be and sure enough, a minute later and I too could hear the unmistakable sound of a boat breaking ice. I didn’t panic and figured that if I took a matter-of-fact approach, I might just get away with my poor prediction. “It’s probably just a boat breaking up the ice”, I said in a disinterested sort of way. “ICE!”, came the immediate reply, “What do you mean, ICE? You assured me that couldn’t happen at these temperatures!”. I hadn’t got away with it, there was only one thing to do. “It’s that bloody BBC, they never get things right and it obviously must have been colder than they predicted and by quite some distance!” I declared before looking out to see nb Hector smashing through the ice which was only about 4mm thick, now if only he’d lain in bed anouther hour, I might have been alright there. Of course it was all a bit of a laugh really so be assured that the atmosphere inside the boat didn’t turn frosty to match the outside!
We decided to stay put outside the Lime Kilns for the day, even though the ice was melting quickly. By the time we were ready and the fire was lit, the sun was blazing through the windows making the inside of Caxton really hot, even the cratch was warming up!
We got our walking boots on and headed off into Hinckley using a path which runs from just south of the Limekilns, parallel to the Sketchley brook, emerging beside the railway bridge next to Lidl at the bottom of Sketchley hill. Once in town, we had a coffee before doing a bit of shopping in Dunelm and at B&Q. Sue has suspended some light muslin cloth below the Houdini hatches to catch condensation drips preventing them landing on us and the floor. Absorbed by the cloth, the moisture soon evaporates with the heat of the cabin. It was pretty cold by the time we walked back to our mooring but the inside of the boat was warm thanks to the fire and the fact that Caxton was still basking in full sunshine.

Caxton basks in the winter sunshine.

Caxton basks in the winter sunshine.

After running the engine for a couple of hours to replenish the batteries, we settled in for the evening. Ice was already forming on the canal surface by 8pm so there can be no surprises in the morning!