What a wonderful world, we love winter!

3 hours 41 minutes, 5.4 miles, 10 locks

What a wonderful day! We woke to find we were well and truly iced in. The night had been very cold - down to below -4 degrees centigrade!

John said he was cold in the night despite having socks on! I had socks on and a hot water bottle! Our feet and heads are near the sides as we have a cross bed. The duvet is always doubled over so our feet are in an "envelope" and we have our winter weight one on the bed. However tonight we will have both our winter and summer weight ones on and socks and hot water bottle. Next is for us to go to bed in our thermals   We shut the door between the saloon and the bedroom as we prefer a cold bedroom. Ha ha, not too cold though!

The first boat through was The Bargee, coming down Dudswell locks. They left a path of broken ice. The ice soon began to reform despite the sunshine. A while later Tripitaka and their companion boat came up and they managed to leave a good trail through the ice! It was time to set off!

We leapfrogged Tripitaka at Cowroast and reached the Tring Summit in glorious sunshine.


The summit cut was clear of ice - it is very wooded and reminded us of the Shroppie around Brewood.




Just before Bulbourne Junction there are lines of moored boats and the ice began again! As we went down the first lock a passer-by said it gets very icy towards the bottom! They were right. The twists and turns of the Marsworth flight were full of it! However we managed to follow trails made by previous boats in some places.


It was really bad in the pound between locks 40 and 39 - a long pound with a really big bend.
This area is very popular with walkers and the combination of heavy frost, ice and glorious sun had brought them all out! We were well and truly gongoozled!


We cut our way through the boats moored around the junction with the Aylesbury Arm and continued with the now setting sun behind us. We so enjoy winter cruising when the weather is like this! A blue sky, a cold face and well wrapped up body! I also noticed that our hull stood up to the ice-breaking very well. The original blacking is not damaged! Another couple of coats in January should set us up well for the rest of the winter!



We spotted a familiar boat around bridge 130! Red and Gold, last seen at Paddington.



We moored above the next couple of Marsworth locks (37 & 8) and I spent a while taking photos. Here is a shot of the scene!






I wonder if we will be iced in tomorrow?


 




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