Icebergs
It was obviously going to be another cold night, so we were a little concerned that the ice might have advanced significantly. Indeed, looking at the canal as the sun rose in a blue sky, the ice had indeed advanced from the opposite bank overnight but with the (river) stream clear. We walked down to the pound below Ironbridge lock and apart from a few leads for the first 100 yards it was completely frozen over. However, our judgement was that it was only thin, so, much to the delight of the local cheerful fishermen who needed us to break up the ice opposite our mooring, we set off.
In fact we had no problem. The ice was easily broken by the passage of the boat on tickover and we cleared a channel down to Cassio Lock. The pound below was completely clear. From Common Moor Lock we were about to enter another completely frozen section but for an upcoming boat (one of the Narrow Escape family) that had cleared a channel for us. On the way up yesterday this is where we had met the thickest ice and so we just meandered through the icebergs left over from the weekend traffic. Below Lot Mead Lock there was no further ice at all apart from a little above Stockers. At Coppermill we met a load of London Firemen waiting around for a BW person to come and test the water for them to satisfy their health and safety requirements before throwing someone in (as they put it). They were on a water rescue exercise. A cheerful bunch who just let Pat get on with preparing the lock and watching us through. I would have wanted to lend a hand with the gates or something, but I suppose health and safety rules would disallow that. By now the weather was warmer and the Marina was totally clear. All in all a good weekend.
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