Blizzard Boating

As we were moored at Great Haywood on Sunday night we thought it would be rude not to pay a visit to what must be one of the dog friendliest pubs in the UK, The Clifford Arms. They also do pretty good food and as it was a very cold night we both went for a curry, I had the Thai red ring stinger and Elaine went for the veggie burn at both ends option ... they were both very good and lived up to all expectations.

As you would have read in yesterday's blog Elaine wrecked the multi fuel stove whilst recklessly hoovering - as a result it was going to be a cold night on the boat!  We usually keep the coal fire burning all night, with the animals all surrounding it keeping themselves warm.  So, what happened? We shared the bed with 3 cats and 2 dogs! They were not on top of the bed they were in it with us! Mind you, I did try to kill a few of them with the curry if you know what I mean......didn't work though!  It was a strange night!

So to today.  It was blowing a gale and snowing every now and again - the problem was that we wanted to get to Stone so that we could pick up the new glass for the fire.  We were chatting, deciding what to do when  - bang - a boat hit us and scraped all down the side!  This is the first time we have been hit since we have owned Caxton - what is worse is that she only just came off the slip after blacking yesterday!  I was out like a shot but the chap was super apologetic and blamed the wind - it was windy but we were on a dead straight!  Basically he wasn't compensating for the wind  plus it was a hire boat (Aqua) so maybe his first outing.  Never mind  - it just took a bit of paint off ... good job we put 4 coats on ... plus it gave me a good story to blog about!

So we decided to move and find a sheltered spot.

I put the full Arctic survival gear on.....it was 'kin freezing out there


We passed the tree that we reported to CART last time we passed here 11 days ago, as in it was about to fall on someone's boat and ruin their day!  Good to see they chopped it down!

Elaine walked the dog on the frozen tow path.  It was a good job it was frozen as this part would have been a quagmire!  

(It still was actually - just a bit of a frosty quagmire ... Elaine)

Did I mention it was the coldest day we have had in the UK! Sometimes it was a total blizzard.

Then the sun would come out and the doggies popped their heads out of the side hatch (with Elaine's help!) ...

Then it would snow again ... one chap inside a boat gave me a severe head shake; I'm not sure if he thought I was nuts or because I went past his boat at more than tick-over speed ... but to keep control in a strong wind you have to keep a bit of power on!  So, I will go with nuts!

This pic doesn't really show the snow, but trust me it was snowing hard and often sideways at that!

Snowing in the lock.

We ended up at Aston Lock so we popped round to the marina where the Monday arvo boaters tea was in full swing! We had a good old chat and catch up with Dot, Gordon, Toni, Ray, Banjo, Jim, Joan and Roly - we just missed seeing Elly!

Many thanks to Roly from the marina - he text-ed us this morning offering to pick us up in his van and go stove glass hunting.  Hopefully the new one will be waiting for us at Stone Post Office tomorrow as we had already ordered one online.