Back down we go…

We’ve had a couple of days here near Gumley Road Bridge. The weather on Sunday was a bit grim first thing, but improved later, and yesterday wasn’t too bad. We had a bit of the snow that was forecast over Saturday night, but rain had washed it away by 10 am.

A bit of snow on the deck
The predominant feature has been the wind. Cold, from the north, and gusting quite strongly sometimes.
So we chose to stay put until today. There was a hard frost overnight, hard enough to leave a scum of ice on the canal in sheltered spots.

That’s ice. Honest. Under the vegetation. You just have to squint a bit.

We moved off around 11, filled with water at the top, then set off down the flight.

Off we go
We were making good time, when the lock-keeper turned up and asked us to wait for 5 minutes while he ran some water off from the side ponds. They were quite full, and he was concerned that the bottom one might overflow, flooding the pub! It shouldn’t have been a problem, but there was another boat following us down, bringing another lock full of water, so he was being cautious.

Waiting for the level to drop

Even with the pause, we cleared the bottom lock after 50 minutes. Then it was a matter of emptying the loo and the rubbish at the junction, through the 2 swing bridges, down the arm to turn at the winding hole, then back to moor near to bridge 6.

I spent the afternoon making up a Tesco order on a very slow internet connection. But got there in the end. It’s being delivered to Black Horse Bridge tomorrow, so we’ll have to be there to receive it.

It seems a lot milder down here below the locks. What a difference 75 feet makes to the strength of the wind.

Locks 10, miles 3